Men’s Basketball: BU earns first sweep of the season, beats Lafayette Sunday

By: Ethan Fuller

Joe Jones characterized his team’s second bout against Lafayette as a “Sunday night rock fight.” But however the game looked, Boston University men’s basketball will take the result — a 64-61 win on the tail end of a back-to-back series with the Leopards.

Both sides looked exhausted by the end of the two-day showdown, but the Terriers came away with a hard-fought sweep to improve to 3-5 at the season’s midway mark. Lafayette drops two straight for the first time all year, sitting at 5-3.

“I like these type of games: where you don’t play particularly well offensively, but you still win,” said Jones. “That’s a mark of a good team.”

The two squads shot a combined 34.1 percent from the floor and went 8-for-49 from long range. Leopards spark plug E.J. Stephens managed a game-high 17 points, but needed 11 shots to get there, while Javante McCoy led the Terriers on his birthday with 14 points on 12 shots.

As the contest wore on and both sides continued to clank shots, the spotlight shined on centers Neal Quinn and Sukhmail Mathon. They battled inside, and the Leopards’ Quinn in particular began to feature more as the fulcrum of the offense. The seven-foot, 280-pound junior finished with nine points, nine rebounds, three assists and two blocks.

Quinn’s passing ability as a center is accentuated when he has a plethora of Leopards who can make shots.

“When we went down and tried to dig out the post or blitz the post, he was finding someone for a three,” said the BU head coach. “We just had to pick our poison.”

But once again, the senior Mathon played effectively on both ends to cancel out Quinn. With 12 points, eight boards, three assists and zero turnovers, Mathon put up one of his best all-around efforts of the season.

That tangible leap in usage stems from an entire offseason of work. Over the summer, Mathon asked the staff for every single clip of a Max Mahoney field goal from last season. When assistant coach Curtis Wilson and Mathon got to work, he made leaps and bounds in the fall.

“He went out and developed a left hand, he got more agile, he stretches all the time — he’s very disciplined in what he does,” said Jones.

Again, Jonas Harper set the tone on the defensive end, holding All-League wing Justin Jaworski to 14 points on 4-of-15 shooting. Jones was impressed with the tenacity Harper displayed, especially on the second night of a back-to-back.

“It’s hard to get kids like that,” he said.

A weekend sweep feels like a cleanse for the Terriers, who have placed a five-game losing streak behind them. Throughout the struggles, Jones approached each postgame presser with unabashed confidence. That faith looks to be paying dividends.

“Every kid that I talked to that played last year — every one — was like, ‘Coach, we’re going to be fine,’” Jones said. “They just have a really strong belief in each other. They’re winners.”

The Terriers sit two games under .500 at the season’s halfway point and have plenty of ground to make up in the standings. They’ll start the first rematch series of the season next weekend, with a home-and-home slate against Holy Cross.