Men’s Basketball: Terriers Win Second Straight

By: Matt Doherty

The Boston University Men’s Basketball team picked up its second consecutive Patriot League win of the year and improved to 9-9 overall after a 61-50 win Wednesday night against American University in Washington DC.

The Terriers continued their dominant defensive effort, holding the struggling Eagles to 50 points on 34% shooting in the win.

BU was guided by a 19-4 run in the first half to take control of the game. After being down 17-11, the Terriers took a 30-21 lead, an advantage they never gave up.

Making his second straight start with Cheddi Mosely sidelined with a foot injury, Eric Fanning led the visiting team with 14 points. Senior guard John Papale scored 13 points knocking down 4 three pointers.

Junior forward Blaise Mbargorba was also a bright spot once again for BU recording 11 points, his second consecutive double digit scoring game. As a team BU shot 45% from the field.

The two teams both had 35 rebounds with Nathan Dieudonne leading the Terriers with 10. BU won the assist and turnover battle

After going into halftime with a 32-27 lead. BU took a double digit lead early in the second half as both team traded buckets the rest of the way. The Eagles could never cut into the Terrier lead with the closest being a 9-point game with under 4 minutes remaining.

With the win the Terriers are now 2-3 in conference play after losing their first three games. American is now 2-14 on the season and 0-5 in the league. Although the Eagles are in the bottom of the Patriot League standings, a win is a win for BU at this point.

The Terriers will return home to take on Loyola Maryland on Monday night at Case Gym as they look to get to .500 in league play.