Men’s Basketball: McCoy’s stellar shooting paces Terriers at Albany

By: Greg Levinsky

Shooting just 33.3 percent over Boston University’s first three games, it was just a matter of time until the law of averages kicked in for sophomore guard Javante McCoy.

He shot 44.4 percent from the field as a freshman, and rekindled his stellar touch in a 71-61 win over the University at Albany on Wednesday at SEFCU Arena. McCoy made the first five shots he took, ultimately accounting for a team-high 18 points off 7-of-12 shooting, including draining 4-of-7 attempts from deep.

In their first contest of a six-game trip, the Terriers (3-1) fell behind early, but mounted a raging comeback to win their first two road games of the year for the first time since 2008.

Trailing 10-6 early in the first half, the Terriers ripped off a 15-1 run spanning over six minutes to take a commanding 21-11 lead. and freshman Jack Hemphill (7 points, 3 rebounds) had five points apiece in the run.

“I was really proud of our effort for the most part with how hard we played and how well we did playing together,” said Boston University head coach Joe Jones. “We did a good job sharing the ball.”

The Terriers took a 37-26 lead into halftime thanks to 8-of-11 (72.7 percent) shooting display from three-point range. McCoy, Hemphill, junior Tyler Scanlon (11 points, 5 rebounds, 5 assists) and freshmen Garrett Pascoe (3 points 3 assists) combined to make all seven of their three-point attempts in the first half.

“We shot like 70 percent from three in the first half which is outrageous,” Jones said. “We got rhythm shots for guys that could make them.”

Albany (0-2) shot poorly in the first half, hitting just 8-of-29 (27.6 percent) of its shots. The Great Danes came to Case Gym a season ago and won 88-74, but lost their best two players. Guards Joe Cremo and David Nichols graduate transferring to Villanova and Florida State, respectively, Albany is in more of a rebuilding mode after losing 87 percent of their scoring from last season.

A top-of-the-key three-pointer by redshirt-freshman Cameron Healy (game-high 20 points) got Albany back within 10, 58-49 with 6:16 left.

“Obviously they weren’t going to lay down,” Jones said. “They kept fighting back.”

The Terriers responded with consecutive buckets by sophomore Sukhmail Mathon (9 points, 6 rebounds, 2 blocks) and McCoy to regain a double-digit lead for the rest of the game.

Greg Levinsky can be reached at glevinsk@bu.edu. Follow him on Twitter @GregLevinsky