{"id":35876,"date":"2023-01-08T20:54:11","date_gmt":"2023-01-09T01:54:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/?p=35876"},"modified":"2023-01-08T20:54:11","modified_gmt":"2023-01-09T01:54:11","slug":"mens-basketball-dominant-second-half-from-terriers-not-enough-to-defeat-american","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/2023\/01\/08\/mens-basketball-dominant-second-half-from-terriers-not-enough-to-defeat-american\/","title":{"rendered":"Men\u2019s Basketball: Dominant second half from Terriers not enough to defeat American"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Luke Scotchie<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

Despite a tremendous second half effort, Boston University Men\u2019s Basketball (9-8, 2-2 PL) lost a nail-biter to the American University Eagles (12-3, 4-0 PL) at Bender Arena in Washington D.C., by a final score of 76-74.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The Terriers kept this game close in large part due to the efforts of graduate forward Walter Whyte. Whyte finished the game with 23 points and 11 rebounds, leading BU in both categories.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt was pretty impressive what he was able to do on the floor,\u201d BU Head Coach Joe Jones.<\/span><\/p>\n

Freshman forward Otto Landrum made his first career start. Despite playing only four minutes, Jones believes that a bright future awaits Landrum sooner rather than later.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s awesome,\u201d Jones said of Landrum. \u201cHe\u2019s going to be really good.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Despite the Terriers only losing by two points, this game was not always close. The Eagles struck first with an early surge that peaked with a 15-point lead with just under five minutes remaining in the first half. Jones believed that his team\u2019s lax offensive play contributed to the Eagles\u2019 stellar first-half performance.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI just thought we were a little lackadaisical offensively,\u201d Jones said. \u201cI just didn\u2019t think we were really playing with great rhythm.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The Terriers\u2019 carelessness with the ball was another key factor in their early struggle. Nine out of this game\u2019s 15 Terrier turnovers were committed before halftime. The Eagles stole the ball from BU seven times and scored just as many points off of turnovers during the first half.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI thought the turnovers were a huge key to the game,\u201d Jones said. \u201cI think if we turn the ball over 15 times, it\u2019s just going to be hard for us to win.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

But no matter how difficult winning would be, Jones and his team never gave up. A combination of tight defense and smarter decisions with the ball helped the Terriers end the half with only a four-point deficit, despite trailing by double-digits just five minutes before.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201c[I\u2019m] just proud of the resiliency of this group,\u201d Jones said. \u201cWe kept going after it.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The Terriers looked like a completely different team in the second half. Their shots were falling and they did a better job at controlling the ball. They even took the lead with just over eight minutes remaining after a Fletcher Tynen And-1.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Jones attributed the Terriers\u2019 second-half success to their maturity, coachability and understanding that they needed to play better after their first half.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s why we had a chance, because they’re coachable,\u201d Jones said. \u201cThey stepped it up and we were able to make a run.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

But American made a run too. The two teams kept trading buckets as the clock wound down, never letting the other team lead by more than five points at a time ever since the Terriers took it from the Eagles for the first time.<\/span><\/p>\n

After late free throws from guards Jonas Harper and Ethan Brittain-Watts, the Terriers found themselves down only two points with three seconds left and a chance to put the game away. However, American\u2019s Matt Rogers had other plans, stealing the ball from Tynen to hand the Terriers their eighth loss of the season.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI think the first half of games we’ve just not been as good and we’ve had to kind of battle back,\u201d Jones said. \u201cWe just have to try to change that and maintain a better level of focus and intensity throughout the game.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Next up, the Terriers will travel to William A. Reid Athletic Center in Hamilton, NY and play the Colgate University Raiders on Wednesday at 7 p.m.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Luke Scotchie Despite a tremendous second half effort, Boston University Men\u2019s Basketball (9-8, 2-2 PL) lost a nail-biter to the American University Eagles (12-3, 4-0 PL) at Bender Arena in Washington D.C., by a final score of 76-74.\u00a0 The Terriers kept this game close in large part due to the efforts of graduate forward […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":21480,"featured_media":35796,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1026,1027,19],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35876"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/21480"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35876"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35876\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":35879,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35876\/revisions\/35879"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35796"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35876"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35876"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35876"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}