Men’s Basketball: BU suffers crushing loss to Navy in Patriot League opener

Featured image by Helen Gui

By Henry Dinh-Price

94 percent.

BU led for a whopping 94 percent of their Patriot League opener against the Navy Midshipmen, but when the final buzzer sounded it was Navy (5-7, 1-0 PL) who celebrated an improbable 62-60 victory over the Terriers (5-9, 0-1 PL). 

Leading by double digits with nine minutes remaining, the Terriers looked poised to open conference play with a win and earn two consecutive victories for the first time this season. 

But BU’s offense fell flat down the stretch, making just two of its last 12 field goals in a brutal loss on Wednesday night in Annapolis, MD. 

“We had a hard time manufacturing good shots. You know, especially in the last eight minutes of the game we struggled to get good looks, and then when we got them we didn’t make them,” BU head coach Joe Jones said postgame. 

After a 3-3 tie in the opening minutes, Navy trailed all of the first half, with the Terriers stretching their largest lead to 12. At halftime, Navy was down by 6. 

But the Midshipmen cut the BU lead to 1 point five minutes into the second half when junior guard Mac MacDonald hit back-to-back 3s. Jones called timeout to regroup, as Navy inched as close as they had been since the earliest stages of the game.

BU responded after the timeout. Freshman forward Matai Baptiste hit a corner three and junior guard Ben Palacios connected on a midrange jumper to bring BU’s lead back to six. 

Five made free throws, four from senior forward Anthony Morales, added to the 10-0 BU run, giving the Terriers an 11-point lead with 11 minutes remaining. 

This should have been it. After Navy got so close to taking their first lead, BU’s immediate 10-0 response should have put the Midshipmen to bed. It didn’t. 

“We’ve got to be able to put the game away,” Jones said. “We had a hard time just executing on both ends.”

The two teams traded baskets for the following two minutes, with BU still up by 11 with nine minutes remaining. But then the Terrier offense went cold. 

BU scored just one point over the next four and a half minutes, a free throw by sophomore forward Nico Nobili. 

By the end of the scoring drought, BU was no longer the team in front. 

A 12-1 Navy run gave the Midshipmen a 52-51 lead with under five minutes remaining, their first lead of the night. 

Leading the comeback for Navy was MacDonald, who scored 17 points, 12 of which came in the second half, and sophomore guard Austin Benigni, who scored 14 of his 22 after the halftime break.   

“MacDonald hurt us with a couple of shots and then Benigni made some tough layups, and that was the difference,” Jones said. 

After Navy took a one point lead, BU regained their advantage, and stretched their lead to three when junior guard Ethan Okwuosa drove through the lane and finished with a left-handed layup. His basket gave the Terriers a 57-54 lead with 3:14 left. 

This, however, would be the last made field goal for BU.

“(Navy) did a good job of going zone and man and mixing it up,” Jones said. “We have to do a good job of understanding what we’re in. I thought because they were going back and forth, we weren’t in any type of offensive rhythm.”

For the game, the Terriers shot just 34 percent (19-for-56) from the field and 25 percent from three (6-for-24).

As BU failed to score late, Navy clawed back and tied the game at 57 with three made free throws, one from MacDonald and two from Benigni.

And with the game hanging in the balance, it was Benigni who came up clutch for Navy. 

He got an on-ball screen and drove past the slower sophomore forward Otto Landrum for a layup to give the Midshipmen a 59-57 lead with 30 seconds remaining. 

“Benigni hurt us on the ball screen, and then penetration,” Jones said. “He kind of took over.” 

The Terriers had a chance to tie on the following possession. Palacios was fouled in the paint with 10.5 seconds on the clock and two free throws awaiting. 

He crucially missed the first attempt, before knocking down the second. 

Forced to foul, the Terriers sent Benigni to the line. He hit both to extend Navy’s lead to three points, 61-58. 

On the following possession, senior guard Miles Brewster brought the ball down the court for the Terriers. With BU needing three points, Navy elected to foul Brewster intentionally, sending him to the free-throw line for two shots with 4.6 seconds left.

Brewster connected on both free throws, trimming the deficit back to one. 

And on Navy’s ensuing inbounds pass, BU had the best chance they could ever hope for. 

As Navy looked for an outlet, Okwuosa knocked the inbounds pass away and Palacios came up with a steal right underneath the basket. 

But as Palacios went up with the layup, he lost his grip of the basketball, sending it careening into the bottom of the backboard. 

The entire BU bench stood in disbelief, hands on their heads, as they watched a golden opportunity slip away. 

“It looked like we just missed it,” Jones said. 

“Tough one.”

BU fouled at the end of the play, sending Navy’s junior guard Lysander Rehnstrom to the free-throw line with just 1.4 seconds remaining. He knocked down the first shot, to extend Navy’s lead to 62-60, before missing the second. 

Off the rebound, BU only had time for a three-quarter court heave from Morales, which came up well short. 

The Terriers had a plethora of chances but couldn’t get it done.

Inexperience has been the story all season for a BU team that lost all five starters from last year. Unfortunately, that inexperience showed down the stretch. 

“This was really the first time we were in a close game all year, and I thought we were just a little antsy, a little unsure of ourselves,” Jones said. 

Before this loss, all of BU’s contests had been decided by eight or more points. 

Inexperience, however, cannot continue to be the story for the Terriers if they want to make any noise in the Patriot League this season. These are the games BU needs to win.  

“We had a double-digit lead in the second half on the road. I thought we outplayed them for most of the game,” Jones said.

“Now we gotta learn how to win.” 

BU will have a chance to earn their first victory of Patriot League play on Saturday when they host Lafayette at Case Gymnasium at 1 p.m.