Men’s Basketball: Terriers fall to Drexel in Philadelphia matinee
By: Liam O’Brien
When the Boston University men’s basketball team last faced off against Drexel in 2000-01, the result was unsatisfying for the Terriers.
Fast forward 18 years and little has changed.
In the first meeting of the two teams since Drexel’s departure from the America East way back when, the Dragons put on a clinic at the expense of a road-weary BU team. They shot 56 percent en route to an 86-67 victory to hand the Terriers their second consecutive loss.
“We didn’t show up,” BU head coach Joe Jones said. “We weren’t ready to play. We had a horrible practice yesterday. We could blame it on a million things. No excuses. We had a responsibility to show up and we didn’t show up.”
Freshman guard Camren Wynter was the star of the show for Drexel. He dominated the game in all facets, posting a near triple-double of 22 points, nine assists and eight rebounds.
“He did whatever he wanted,” Jones said. “He got to rim, got into the paint because we weren’t there to help the guy on the ball. We didn’t do a good job stopping the ball. He was able to go one-on-one because we didn’t do a great job supporting the guy on the ball.”
Wynter put his teammates in juicy positions for points and they capitalized throughout the afternoon. All five starters registered in double figures with sophomore forward James Butler leading the supporting cast with 17 points on 7-9 shooting and eight rebounds.
Junior forward Max Mahoney put on a good showing for the Terriers with 20 points on 9-10 shooting while classmate Tyler Scanlon contributed 14 points and six assists. But, that was basically it for a BU team that just did not have gas in the tank.
“We didn’t get leadership out of our older guys,” Jones said. “Didn’t execute anything offensively. Didn’t do what they needed to do defensively and we got beat. No resistance at all.”
No other Terrier scored in double digits while the unit was hammered on the boards, 40-21. BU shot just 3-14 from three while making four of their nine free-throw attempts. The Terriers also struggled to get back on defense with the Dragons exposing them for 17 fast break points (compared to BU’s eight).
“We got to show up,” Jones said. “We don’t compete, this is what happens. They have to understand anyone can beat you. To be a good team, it’s really hard. If you’re going to go on the road for six games in a row and you’re going to show up like this, this is what is going to happen.”
Drexel was in control from the outset. They scored the first six points of the game before extending their lead to as much as 12 in the first half. BU closed the first stanza on an 8-2 run to limit the deficit to 44-38 at the half, but it only got worse from there.
The Dragons opened the second half much like they did the first, scoring the opening eight points of the frame. The Terriers got to within seven points of Drexel after a Mahoney layup with 11:38 left, but that is as close as they would get to coming back.
From that point, the Dragons scored 24 of the game’s next 30 points to up their advantage to a decisive 80-55, the run culminating in a Butler three with 5:26 remaining.