Men’s Basketball: Strong effort not enough for Terriers in defeat at Lehigh

By Sam Robb O’Hagan

Boston University Men’s Basketball (10-13, 3-7 PL) couldn’t complete a valiant road effort at Lehigh (13-8, 8-2 PL) in a 66-55 defeat on Sunday.

Turnovers, defensive fouls and poor second-half shooting undid an otherwise impressive performance from the Terriers, who held Lehigh’s red-hot shooters to 36.5% shooting from the field and 23.8% from three.

“We got to do something about our turnovers and our decision making,” BU Head Coach Joe Jones said. “I thought for a good portion of the game we outplayed them.”

The Terriers turned the ball over 15 times, to which the Mountain Hawks profited 20 points, outscoring BU by 18 points off turnovers.

“Any game you play where they score 20 points off turnovers and you score two off theirs, you’re not winning that game,” Jones said.

Defensive fouls were another problem for BU, especially in the second half — after shooting two free throws in the entire first half, Lehigh got to the line 24 times in the second, scoring more than half of their second half points from the stripe.

“Overall, we’re fouling too much,” Jones said. “We got to do a better job of playing physically without fouling, bad teams foul a lot.”

But the Terriers’ struggles at the line extended to both ends of the floor.

“The big thing is they were 23-for-26 [from the line] and we were 22-for-31,” Jones said.

Along with their 66.7% clip on free throws in the second half, Jones’ team plummeted to 25.9% shooting from the field after shooting 47.1% in the first half — a point of frustration for a team that prides itself on its shooting.

“I don’t think we take bad shots,” Jones said. “We pride ourselves on that, I really feel like we’ll make more [shots] as the season goes on. We got the right guys and the right guys are taking them.”

It was an efficient day from the field for both teams. Lehigh’s trio of starting guards — Evan Taylor, Keith Higgins Jr. and Tyler Whitney-Sidney — all entered the game shooting over 40% from behind the arc, but the three combined to shoot just 3-for-15 from downtown.

“They [Taylor, Higgins Jr. and Whitney-Sidney] all got double figures, but we made them work,” Jones said. “If you can contain those three, you’ve got a chance, but that’s not easy.”

Save for sending the Mountain Hawks to the line too much, it was an otherwise impressive defensive performance from the Terriers against a team that has now won eight straight games in the Patriot League.

“We’re good enough to win in this league,” Jones said. “Our guys know that.”

But BU’s resilient performance wasn’t enough, a result for which Jones cited his team’s inability to close out games with big plays in the biggest moments.

“They also made some timely plays that we didn’t make,” Jones said. “Evan Taylor got two big-time rebounds in moments when the game was in flux. [Walter Whyte] had a great offensive rebound tip-in and you just have to make more plays like that.”

Whyte is part of the group of experienced players on BU’s roster that Jones and the Terriers are counting on to close out games. Graduate guards Jonas Harper and Fletcher Tynen, as well as senior guard Ethan Brittain-Watts, are part of the core that Jones pointed out.

“Fletcher had four turnovers, and Jonas had four. That’s eight turnovers for two guys that have been here for five years. That’s rough,” Jones said.

“Those core guys, you know, we’re really looking for those guys to be able to make those types of (timely) plays for us on both ends of the floor,” Jones said.

Having now lost six of their last seven in Patriot League play, Jones and the Terriers will return to Case Gymnasium for a matchup with Holy Cross on Wednesday at 7 p.m.