Men’s Basketball: Terriers weather huge run from Dartmouth in back-and-forth win

By Sam Robb O’Hagan

With 29 seconds left in regulation at Case Gymnasium, BU graduate guard Fletcher Tynen dived to the floor in pursuit of a loose ball off an errant pass from Dartmouth junior guard Jaren Johnson.

Tynen won the scrum, popping up a pass as he laid on the floor.

Graduate wing Walter Whyte emerged with the ball and nothing but daylight on his way to a game-sealing dunk at the other end.

Boston University Men’s Basketball (7-5) weathered the storm of a 20-point mid-game comeback from the Dartmouth Big Green (4-8) to win their first game back home 67-59 after a seven-game road trip.

Carrying a 20 point lead into the last five minutes of the first half, the Terriers surrendered a 12-0 Dartmouth run going into halftime. 

Eight minutes into the second half, after another double-digit run that started with 17:15 left to play, Dartmouth had their first lead.

“We just had a hard time of maintaining our focus,” BU Head Coach Joe Jones said. “Once we got the lead, we played loose, we turned it over, we didn’t rebound.”

After turning the ball over four times in the first 16 minutes of the first half, the Terriers entered the half with eight, doubling their output from the rest of the half in the last four minutes.

After starting the game 3-for-17 from the field with two second-chance points and two more in the paint, Dartmouth finished 24-for-56 with 32 points in the paint and 14 second-chance points.

“I thought Malcom [Chimezie] really struggled. I thought that was the big thing,”Jones said when asked about the Big Green’s success down low. 

Dartmouth senior forward Dane Adelekun had 11 points, eight rebounds and five blocks, including a three from the top of the key on the Big Green’s 13-0 second half run that saw them take their first and only lead.

Junior guard Caelan Jones delivered one of his best performances of the season, scoring seven points, including a 3-pointer immediately after Dartmouth took their 42-41 lead with 12 minutes to play.

“I think ‘CJ’ [Jones] played great,” Jones said.

Jones was one of the Terriers’ leading scorers off the bench, second only to junior guard Miles Brewster, who finished with eight points in 12 minutes. After Jones’ three to regain the lead, the two combined in a move that started with Jones recovering a loose rebound and ended with an impressive Brewster layup in traffic.

“I thought Miles and ‘CJ’ [Jones] gave us a lift,” Jones said.

With the boost from Brewster and Jones, the Terriers’ contained the Big Green’s electric second-half run to hold a two-point lead with just under six minutes left.

From there, the Terriers’ experience took over. Graduate guard Jonas Harper made a three from the wing that he followed with a steal on the ensuing Dartmouth possession. He found Whyte for a second-chance layup to give the Terriers a seven-point lead.

With just over two minutes left, another Whyte layup capped an 11-2 Terrier run that put the game out of reach.

Whyte and Harper finished as the game’s two leading scorers, combining for 28 points on 9-for-24 shooting, 13 of which coming in the last seven minutes.

In a back-and-forth affair in which both teams repeatedly exchanged blows, Jones acknowledged the importance of his team’s experienced players like Whyte and Harper.

“You gotta hope that our leadership and our older guys are communicating the right things in the locker room,” Jones said. 

But after another close win, there are plenty of problems left unsolved. 

“We’re just having a hard time being consistent,” Jones said. “You want to build some confidence. You want to build some momentum. I’m not sure if we’re doing that.”

“We have to learn, you know, sometimes I don’t know if they’re learning, and that’s the thing I’m most concerned about,” Jones said.

The Terriers will have the chance to prove they learned from an unsatisfying win when they travel north for a matchup with UMass Lowell on Dec. 21 at 4 p.m.