Men’s BAsketball: BU Dominates In An All-around Display Against Thomas College

Featured image by Troy Bolduc

By Finley Rogan

Boston University Men’s Basketball (5-5, 0-0 PL) defeated the Thomas College Terriers (3-7, 0-2 NAC) 113-76 Monday night at the Case Gym. It was the first time in history the schools met on the court.

Thomas College—a small division 3 school in Maine—will surely be BU’s least-known and heralded opponent this season. 

BU head coach Joe Jones described the game as the Super Bowl for Thomas since they would have the chance to play on the road against a Division 1 opponent.

BU entered the game without one of their leading scorers, sophomore guard Kyrone Alexander. 

Jones said Alexander is nursing a bad bruise on his thumb.

It was clear BU would have the size advantage, and they wasted no time challenging Thomas inside as the first play senior forward Malcolm Chimezie backed down the opponent and forced the foul. BU made a point to assert themselves inside as they forced the third shooting foul against Thomas in just the third minute of the game.

With sixteen minutes still remaining in the first half, BU made a full five-man substitution. They held an ealy 13-5 when the new unit came in. 

“I wanted to play everyone in the first half,” Jones said.

Thomas went on a small run and the BU lead was down to three, as they led 19-14 with 14 minutes left in the first half.

BU played patient offensively early in the game, consistently making the extra pass and looking to find a wide-open shooter.

The game presented a big opportunity for freshman forward Ben Defty—who was a head taller than anyone on the Thomas roster—to get some buckets inside the paint.

BU turned to their veteran guard Miles Brewster to push the paint in transition as he had consecutive fastbreak makes at the rim midway through the half. Brewster was 4-5 with 10 points in his first seven minutes of play. With just under nine minutes left in the first half, BU led 30-23.

BU got the lead up to 13 with five minutes to go in the first half as they led 43-30. Had Thomas not shot 8-15 from three point range, the game could have already been out of hand. They were led by senior guard Parker Desjardins who scored 15 points—all from deep—in the period.

Following an evenly-matched finish to the first half, BU led 54-41. BU scored 24 of their 54 first half points in the paint and 21 points from three point range. It was their largest scoring half of the season so far. Thomas had just eight points in the paint, and was outrebounded 22-14.

Aside from points in the paint and rebounds, Thomas nearly matched or led BU in the other key statistics. However, the Terriers did heavily rotate their squad through the half as every active player got into the game at one point.

The teams shared a quick 15 point scoring spurt to begin the second half. With 17 minutes remaining, BU led 62-48. BU and Thomas continued the trend of being scorching hot from three point range. 

It was clear that Thomas had no answers for BU’s size entering the second half. On consecutive possessions in the paint, BU senior forward Malcolm Chimezie forced a foul and then scored a nice hook shot. BU led 67-52.

BU continued to be on fire from three point range as they matched their first half three point total in just seven second half minutes. The game was getting out of reach for Thomas as BU held an 86-57 lead with 11 minutes to go.

As the midpoint of the half passed, BU was in the midst of a 39-18 run. The floodgates had opened and Thomas no longer had the energy or stamina to keep up with BU’s tenacious and deep rotation.

As time dwindled in the second half, BU was really asserting themselves defensively with multiple transition buckets coming off Thomas turnovers. BU led 105-68 with five minutes remaining and they had five players reach double figures in scoring. BU had also made seven of their last eight three point attempts. 

“I do think we have, we have, like, four dudes that I think are, if they’re open, I feel really good, they’re going in,” Jones said. “Then we have some other guys that shoot it pretty well too.”

BU would go on and finish the game winning 113-75 in a game that never really felt close. 

It was a dominant second-half display. BU outscored Thomas 59-31 in the period. It was also the best three-point shooting night of the season for the Terriers as they made 17-33 attempts which was good for over 50%.

BU was led by graduate student guard Miles Brewster and senior guard Ben Palacios, scoring 15 points. All but two of the 12 BU players who played scored points.

BU will be in action again on Friday night as they travel to play UMass Lowell in Lowell at 7 p.m. The game will be available for streaming on ESPN+.