Men’s Basketball: Terriers Top Bison in Thrilling Overtime Fashion
Featured image by Spirit Veron
By Kaan Oguz
Boston University Men’s Basketball (10-11, 4-3 PL) won 85-82 against Bucknell University Bison (8-13, 4-3 PL) in a thrilling overtime and snapped their two game losing streak.
Against Bucknell University, Boston University extended their impressive win streak at home. By taking their 6th home win in a row, the Terriers have stayed undefeated for 56 days in Case Gymnasium.
As the team who played the most overtime periods in this season’s college basketball, the Bison failed to continue their lead at the very end. The Bisons’ matchup against the Terriers was their seventh game this season that went to overtime. Until today’s game they had a .500 percent win in their games that went to overtime and Terrier’s gave them their 4th overtime loss.
The most stunning fact from the game is that there was a 38-minute period where the Terriers never took the lead. After the mid-range jumper by Noah Williamson that made the score 9-8 in favor of the Bisons, there was 17:04 left in the first half. After that position, the first time Boston University took the lead was with 4:07 left in the overtime period. Until that 3-point jumper by Miles Brewster where they took the lead 77-74, the Terriers were trailing almost the entire game.
In the beginning of the game, the main topic of the game was the paint domination of the Bisons. Bucknell University didn’t miss any 2-point shots in the first 12 minutes of the game; they made their first 9 attempts inside the 3-point line. Since they could pass the perimeter defense of Terriers easily, Bisons found the double digit deficit without being tested in their offense.
After the score came to 26-15, Terriers gave a reaction and reduced the score to one point margin. During their 10-0 series, every basket came from a different player which was the key point for Terriers throughout the game.
At the end of the first half, 8 of the 9 players in Boston University have contributed to the score and even though none of the players were in double digit points, this balance helped Terriers to stay in the game against Bisons and Noah Williamson’s 15 point 1st half performance.
After finding 22 points in the paint, Bisons continued to drive to the rim in the second half and got what they wanted in most of their attempts. Even though the Terriers managed to stay in the trailing distance, they could not keep their opponent from finding points in the paint. Therefore, coach Jones tried to change the defense of the team.
The Terriers tried a 1-2-1-1 full court press with the aim of taking some seconds from Bisons’ shot clock. After this short-term trial, Boston University started a 2-3 zone defense which they tried some of the close games back in the season. With zone defense except two-three specific positions they did a better job in slowing down the opponent.
At the end of the game, both teams missed critical shots that would decide the outcome. The Terriers found the tie at 74 with Otto Landrum’s layup; defended Josh Bascoe in the match and forced the game into overtime.
In the overtime both Terriers and Bisons went on 5-0 series, respectively. When there was 1 minute left, the score was tied at 79. In the last minute; Nico Mobili, Kyrone Alexander, and Miles Brewster came to the free throw line and none of them missed. With those successful free throws and the motivation of taking the lead after 38 minutes, Terriers managed to secure the win by 85-82.
Bisons led the points in the paint by 38-24 and Terriers created the difference from behind the arc with 11 three-point made to seven. Micheal McNair’s four successful three-point jumpers were critical in this area. At the end, the balanced box score continued in Boston University’s side as six players in the team created double-digit scores.
Kyrone Alexander was the highest scorer of the team with 16 points. On the Bisons’ side, Noah Williamson led the game in points by scoring 26 and Josh Bascoe helped him with 16 points which was not enough to win the game.
Boston University will continue Patriot League play against Holy Cross on Jan. 27 at Case Gymnasium, with the game streaming on ESPN+.