Men’s Basketball: Terriers Reach Win in Overtime Against UAlbany

Featured image by Matthew Wuschke

By Kaan Oguz

Boston University Men’s Basketball (4-5, 0-0 PL) claimed their first win of the December in a thrilling drama in overtime against UAlbany Great Danes (6-4 0-0 AE) with a score of 80-74.

Both teams played their first game of the season that went into overtime. The Terriers, who fell behind against the Danes with 12:27 left in the second half, took the lead for the first time in 15 minutes with 3:56 left in overtime and played the overtime period outstandingly. 

The Terriers made six three-point jumpers in the entire regulation time, and in the overtime period they made three three-point jumpers. This efficient shooting in the overtime was the key factor that led to the win of the home team.

UAlbany got their third loss in their fourth away game. In this game, they led the score for the last 12 minutes of the regulation time and were close to the victory; however, in that period they never managed to enlarge the scoring margin and allowed the Terriers to stay in the trailing distance.

Boston University, on the other side, had never fallen mentally and always stayed inside the game after they gave up the lead. With a solid shooting performance in the overtime, the Terriers improved their home record to .500.

The first half of the game was balanced and the scoring margin was one ball distance for the majority of the first half. The Terriers created the difference at the last one and a half minute of the first half where they went to the locker room with a 7-0 run. At the end of the first half, Terriers were up with a score 35-27, the largest margin of the first half.

In the first half of the game, the Terriers dominated the rebound by 18-6 and thus created the difference in paint. The home team found 24 of the 35 points they scored in the paint and allowed only 12 points in their paint.

After the second half started, the Terriers seemed comfortable to protect their advantage in the score for the first 6 minutes, until 14:22. After 14:22 where the Terriers were in the lead with a score 44-36, Great Danes went on a 15-1 series from 14:22 to 10:24 in approximately 3 minutes and created the greatest margin in the score for themselves, 51-45.

After the Terriers fell behind they tried a zone defense to prevent Great Danes from penetrating into the rim. On the offense, Kyrone Alexander led his team exquisitely with the help of Miles Brewster and despite staying behind in the score till the overtime period, they continued to maintain their offense. The Terriers made 11 points from the free throw line in the second half which was their primary way of scoring.

In the last two minutes of regulation time while the Terriers were down by 2 points, they found two wide open 3-point jumper shots with Kyrone Alexander and Micheal McNair where they could have taken the lead and won the game. After they both missed, the second half ended with a tie in the score 66.

In the overtime, the Terriers continued the momentum they found in the end of second half; took the 3-point jumper shots with more confidence and made half as many 3-point jumpers in the overtime. After Matai Baptiste made the 3-point shot with 3:56 left to the end of overtime, the Terriers took the lead by 69-68 for the first time in 15 minutes and never looked back afterwards.

Kyrone Alexander was the man of the match for Boston University with 27 points. After reaching his career high against Sacred Heart in the previous game with 22 points, the star player raised his bar even higher. Micheal Mcnair was the second best player in the Terriers offense, scoring 16 points on 6-7 shooting. On the other side, Malcolm Chimezie performed an monstrously defensive statline with 7 blocks and played a key role in preventing Great Danes’ points in the paint.

On UAlbany’s side, there was a more balanced box score where 5 players reached double-digit points. Demarr Langford led the points for the away team with 14 points, and Byron Joshua, best player of the season for Great Danes so far, finished the game with 12 points and 6 assists.

The Terriers play their next game against the Syracuse Orange on Dec. 10 at 7 p.m. with steaming available on ESPN+.