Men’s Basketball: Terriers Lose on Buzzer Beater to Wagner

Featured image by Matthew Wuschke

By Ryan Abazari

Boston University Men’s Basketball (1-4, 0-0 PL) continued their homestand against the defending NEC champions Wagner Seahawks (2-3, 0-0 NEC) in what became an instant classic in the memories of Seahawks fans, and a game the Terriers will try to forget quickly with a buzzer beater being scored due to a Terrier mistake. 

In a game where the Terriers led for nearly 37 minutes of play, they were never able to land the finishing blow and allowed the Seahawks to stay in the game, eventually leading to the buzzer beater to win it. 

“We were not able to put the game away,” said Head Coach Joe Jones. “We kept leaving the door open,”

The Terriers came into this game with some slight momentum winning their first game of the season at home to Dartmouth a few days prior on Nov. 16. After a rough showcase on the road on the West Coast, the game against The Big Green hoped to be a showcase for the Terriers identity on the season, and many of the positives in that game carried over. 

For Wagner, they would enter with the same 1-3 record as the Terriers, and after scoring only 28 points the last time out against the Seton Hall Pirates, it seemed as if the Terriers would enter with a slight advantage despite the similar records. 

The beginning of the game was sloppy on both sides, but the Terriers showcased enough positive play to build a slight lead that they would hold for nearly the entirety of the game. 

After taking the lead with a Kyrone Alexander three-pointer with 16:37 left to go in the first, they would not relinquish that lead for the rest of the game. The problem was that they were never able to build on that lead due to the aggressive play from Wagner meaning the maximum Terrier lead was only 10. 

This allowed the Seahawks to constantly stay in the game and slowly chip away at the Terrier lead, eventually making it only a one possession game with four minutes to play. 

When asked about his team’s inability to put Wagner away, Coach Jones said “I think it’s learning how to win. I think we are still are in a phase where we’ve got to grow and learn how to win.”

The final sequence of the game may have been one of the most chaotic scenes in Basketball this year, with the final eight seconds of game time taking over 15 minutes to complete.

A layup from Wagner’s R.J. Green made it a one point game with 34 seconds left. Both teams would trade missed shots, forcing the Seahawks to foul.

With eight seconds left and Kyrone Alexander at the free throw line, it seemed as if the Terriers would be able to ice the game and hold on for their 2nd win of the season. After making the first free throw it seemed the Terriers had it, but he would miss the second, causing a potential problem. What seemed to be the Terriers saving grace was the high-flying Malcolm Chimezie grabbing the offensive rebound and quickly getting fouled. 

With only about six seconds left, a 2 point lead, and a Terrier at the free throw line, it finally seemed like the game was over. Unfortunately for BU, Chimezie ended up missing both shots and gave the Seahawks a last gasp. 

After advancing the ball up the court the Seahawks were able to draw up a play getting Greene open for the game tying layup with 0.6 seconds left. So after having the lead for over 92 percent of gametime, the Terriers would be forced to play an extra five in overtime to decide it. 

A massive mental mistake, a largely unused rule, and some interesting calls were still to come in the 0.6 time period.  

Matai Baptiste, understanding the time crunch and the Terrier lack of timeouts, quickly grabbed the ball after the Greene make and tried to make a full court pass to the running Nico Nobili. He ended up overthrowing him, and the ball sailed out of bounds. 

Since no one had touched the ball, the clock never started and gave the Seahawks the ball in the exact same position underneath the basket with 0.6 seconds to go and a chance to win. 

The ball was inbounded to the hot hand Greene again, and despite him fumbling the ball at the start according to the refs, he was able to control the ball and get up a shot in that 0.6 second time frame and give the Seahawks the most unlikely of buzzer beaters  to win 60-58. 

The Terriers’ next game is the start of the UMBC Multi-team Event, going on the road to take on the UMBC Retrievers at 12 p.m. on Nov. 23 on ESPN+.