Men’s Basketball: Injury-Ridden Terriers Down Greyhounds

By: Matt Doherty

With only nine active players, the BU Men’s Basketball Team faced and conquered adversity by picking up a 73-65 victory on the road over the Loyola Greyhounds on Saturday afternoon.

The win marked the sixth in a row for the Terriers as they improve to 9-5 in Patriot League play and 16-11 overall.

Mounting injuries have already plagued this season and another key player caught the injury bug as senior forward Nathan Dieudonne missed the game with an ankle issue.

However, the shorthanded Terriers got off to a fast start shooting the ball well from the field unlike their opponent.

BU led by as many as 17 in the first half led by Kyle Foreman, Cheddi Mosely, and Blaise Mbargorba on the offensive end.

The Greyhounds started abysmal, missing 18 of their first 19 shots to let the Terriers take a stranglehold on the game.

Loyola closed the first half with momentum cutting the BU lead to 12 and continued chipping away in the final 20 minutes.

An Eric Laster jump shot with under 3 minutes remaining cut the lead to just one possession for the first time since the opening minutes.

But then a John Papale pair of free throws and an Eric Fanning layup in between consecutive defensive stops gave BU a seven point lead on their way to the victory.

Kyle Foreman, John Papale, and Eric Fanning all scored 14 points to lead the Terriers while the latter recorded a season high 15 rebounds.

In the absence of Dieudonne, junior forward Dylan Haines provided a spark off the bench scoring a season high 10 points and grabbing 5 rebounds before fouling out.

Sophomore guard Andre Walker scored 16 points for the Greyhounds and big man Franz Rassman had 14 points and 10 rebounds against the depleted BU frontcourt.

The Terriers did a good defensive job on Loyola forward Jarred Jones who scored just 6 points on 3-12 shooting, 8 points below his season average.

BU shot 44% from the field, 38% from three, and 100% from the charity stripe opposed to just a 32% FG mark for Loyola. The game came down to making shots, something the Terriers did well.

With the win, BU is still in second place in the standings, but the hottest team in the Patriot League will look to continue the winning streak with two huge games next week vs. Colgate on Wednesday and at Bucknell next Saturday to determine their fate in the conference.