Men’s Basketball: BU Suffers Second Straight League Loss at Army
The Boston University men’s basketball team dropped its second consecutive game Wednesday night, losing 73-61 to the Army Black Knights at Christl Arena.
With the game tied at 60 apiece with 4:02 to go, Army went on an 11-0 run to pull out the victory and knock off the visiting Terriers on Senior Night.
Luke Morrison had 19 points on 5-5 3FG, while guard Jordan Fox finished with 15 points. Eric Fanning led the charge for BU finishing with 19 points but was the only Terrier in double figures.
Coming off a 20-point loss to league leading Bucknell, the Terriers came out strong Wednesday opening up a 23-6 lead in the first 8 minutes of the game.
However, the Black Knights went on a 32-13 run of their own to close the first half with a 2-point advantage aided by scoring outbursts from Morrison and Fox.
In the second half, the two teams went back and forth. Army led 50-43 before the Terriers made a run to tie the game back up. Tied at 60 all with 4 minutes to go though, the home team controlled the final portion of the game.
BU went cold, not connecting on a field goal in the final 4:02 and Army was able to win their sixth Patriot League of the season.
Forward Matt Wilson was big down the stretch for the Black Knights as well. Wilson finished with 12 points and 7 rebounds off the bench.
Army’s bench outscored BU’s bench 52-14. However Fox, who normally starts, played 30 minutes off the bench tonight because the Black Knights started their seniors on Senior Night.
BU freshman Tyler Scanlon scored the first five points of the game and finished with nine total, serving as the team’s second leading scorer in the game.
The Terriers struggled from the field going 25-65 FG (38%) and 7-21 3FG despite starting the game hitting 5 of their first 6 three-point attempts.
They missed 14 of their next 15 3FG, while also missing at least 10 layups around the basket, and finishing 5-13 from the foul line.
On defense, BU was unable to slow down the Army offensive attack who was able to get open looks along the perimeter all game long. After a slow start, they were virtually unstoppable offensively in the final 30 minutes of the game.
Sitting in second place in the Patriot League standings with one game to go, the loss will not hurt BU as long as they win on Saturday or Lehigh loses. The Terriers are now 11-6 in the league, tied with Lehigh and one game ahead of Navy after the Mids lost to American Wednesday night.
BU does have the tiebreaker over the Mountain Hawks thanks to their two head-to-head victories so the Terriers control their own destiny.
The loss for BU also meant that the Bucknell Bison won the Patriot League regular season title for the sixth time in the last seven years. The Bison beat Lafayette on Wednesday for good measure which means the PL Tournament will now run through Lewisburg.
As for BU, they missed a golden opportunity to wrap up the two-seed and to secure a bounce back win.
After a fast start that saw them build a commanding lead, the Terriers played sloppy the rest of the way, allowing a streaky Army team to take control.
The Terriers will now shift their attention to Saturday when they travel to Holy Cross and look to finish the regular season off on a high-note.