Men’s Basketball: Terriers Compete but Fall Short in Matchup Against Army West Point

Featured image by Spirit Veron

By Austin Rayamajhi

Boston University Terriers Men’s Basketball (9-10, 3-3 PL) fought the Army Black Knights Men’s Basketball (10-8, 4-2 PL) in a Saturday afternoon matinee, losing by a score of 68 to 62. 

“Really proud of the effort we showed in the second half,” said BU Head Coach Joe Jones. “That is something we can build off of…we gotta figure some things out offensively.” 

The game started with the Black Knights getting off to a fast start, drilling two three point shots. The Terriers fought back with a couple easy baskets assisted by Sophomore guard Michael McNair. McNair hit a jumper a little over five minutes into the game to bring BU down two.

The basket by McNair was the last points for the Terriers for over seven minutes. Army would score 14 unanswered points, stretching their lead to 16. The run from the Black Knights was balanced as four of the five starters would score during this time.  

Freshman guard Azmar Abdullah would come off the bench and break BU’s scoring drought. Abdullah came in and scored six points over a three minute stretch, but Army continued to grow their lead during this time. The half would close with the Terriers down 21. 

The Black Knights dominance in the first half was led by senior guard Jalen Rucker. Rucker is top 35 in the nation, averaging 18.9 points per game on the season, and his prolific scoring was on display against the Terriers. He led both teams with 12 points in the first half. The Terriers were also sloppy with the ball, turning it over eight times. Army scored 12 points off these turnovers.

Both teams started the second half slowly. The Black Knights expanded their lead to 22 before BU went on an 18-3 run to cut the deficit to 7. This run was catapulted by Junior guard Ben Roy, who scored seven as part of this run. The Terriers had ten minutes to try and complete the comeback victory in West Point.  

Rucker broke the BU run with a three point shot, but the Terriers continued to inch closer. Starting forward Malcolm Chimezie hit a free throw to cut the lead to five, but Rucker would hit a jump shot on back to back possessions and Army brought the lead up to 11 as the start of crunch time. 

The Black Knights run was responded to by McNair and Roy. The former hit a three while the latter hit back to back midrange jumpers to cut the lead to four. BU’s leading scorer, sophomore guard Kyrone Alexander, hit a pair of free throws to bring the Army lead down to three with 1:38 left in the game. The three point deficit was the closest the Terriers had been since 11:58 in the first half. 

The Terriers had a chance to take advantage of Army’s poor free throw shooting late in the game. The Black Knights missed the front end of a 1 and 1 twice and went 1 for 2 on another series of free throws. However, the Terriers failed to score any field goals in the final minute of the game, and ultimately fell by six.

The difference in this game was the three point shooting for the teams. BU shot 6-22 from range while Army was 9-21. Their shooting was led by Rucker, who went 4 for 7. 

“When you have a guy like Rucker, you can really play off him. He makes the game easy for everybody else,” said Jones. 

BU will continue Patriot League play on the road against Navy on January 22nd, with the game streaming on ESPN+.