{"id":36305,"date":"2023-01-30T10:13:25","date_gmt":"2023-01-30T15:13:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/?p=36305"},"modified":"2023-01-30T10:13:25","modified_gmt":"2023-01-30T15:13:25","slug":"mens-basketball-strong-effort-not-enough-for-terriers-in-defeat-at-lehigh","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/2023\/01\/30\/mens-basketball-strong-effort-not-enough-for-terriers-in-defeat-at-lehigh\/","title":{"rendered":"Men\u2019s Basketball: Strong effort not enough for Terriers in defeat at Lehigh"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Sam Robb O\u2019Hagan<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

Boston University Men\u2019s Basketball (10-13, 3-7 PL) couldn\u2019t complete a valiant road effort at Lehigh (13-8, 8-2 PL) in a 66-55 defeat on Sunday.<\/span><\/p>\n

Turnovers, defensive fouls and poor second-half shooting undid an otherwise impressive performance from the Terriers, who held Lehigh\u2019s red-hot shooters to 36.5% shooting from the field and 23.8% from three.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe got to do something about our turnovers and our decision making,\u201d BU Head Coach Joe Jones said. \u201cI thought for a good portion of the game we outplayed them.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The Terriers turned the ball over 15 times, to which the Mountain Hawks profited 20 points, outscoring BU by 18 points off turnovers.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cAny game you play where they score 20 points off turnovers and you score two off theirs, you\u2019re not winning that game,\u201d Jones said.<\/span><\/p>\n

Defensive fouls were another problem for BU, especially in the second half \u2014 after shooting two free throws in the entire first half, Lehigh got to the line 24 times in the second, scoring more than half of their second half points from the stripe.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cOverall, we\u2019re fouling too much,\u201d Jones said. \u201cWe got to do a better job of playing physically without fouling, bad teams foul a lot.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

But the Terriers\u2019 struggles at the line extended to both ends of the floor.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe big thing is they were 23-for-26 [from the line] and we were 22-for-31,\u201d Jones said.<\/span><\/p>\n

Along with their 66.7% clip on free throws in the second half, Jones\u2019 team plummeted to 25.9% shooting from the field after shooting 47.1% in the first half \u2014 a point of frustration for a team that prides itself on its shooting.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think we take bad shots,\u201d Jones said. \u201cWe pride ourselves on that, I really feel like we\u2019ll make more [shots] as the season goes on. We got the right guys and the right guys are taking them.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

It was an efficient day from the field for both teams. Lehigh\u2019s trio of starting guards — Evan Taylor, Keith Higgins Jr. and Tyler Whitney-Sidney — all entered the game shooting over 40% from behind the arc, but the three combined to shoot just 3-for-15 from downtown.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThey [Taylor, Higgins Jr. and Whitney-Sidney] all got double figures, but we made them work,\u201d Jones said. \u201cIf you can contain those three, you\u2019ve got a chance, but that\u2019s not easy.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Save for sending the Mountain Hawks to the line too much, it was an otherwise impressive defensive performance from the Terriers against a team that has now won eight straight games in the Patriot League.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re good enough to win in this league,\u201d Jones said. \u201cOur guys know that.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

But BU\u2019s resilient performance wasn\u2019t enough, a result for which Jones cited his team\u2019s inability to close out games with big plays in the biggest moments.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThey also made some timely plays that we didn\u2019t make,\u201d Jones said. \u201cEvan Taylor got two big-time rebounds in moments when the game was in flux. [Walter Whyte] had a great offensive rebound tip-in and you just have to make more plays like that.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Whyte is part of the group of experienced players on BU\u2019s roster that Jones and the Terriers are counting on to close out games. Graduate guards Jonas Harper and Fletcher Tynen, as well as senior guard Ethan Brittain-Watts, are part of the core that Jones pointed out.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cFletcher had four turnovers, and Jonas had four. That\u2019s eight turnovers for two guys that have been here for five years. That\u2019s rough,\u201d Jones said.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThose core guys, you know, we\u2019re really looking for those guys to be able to make those types of (timely) plays for us on both ends of the floor,\u201d Jones said.<\/span><\/p>\n

Having now lost six of their last seven in Patriot League play, Jones and the Terriers will return to Case Gymnasium for a matchup with Holy Cross on Wednesday at 7 p.m.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Sam Robb O\u2019Hagan Boston University Men\u2019s Basketball (10-13, 3-7 PL) couldn\u2019t complete a valiant road effort at Lehigh (13-8, 8-2 PL) in a 66-55 defeat on Sunday. Turnovers, defensive fouls and poor second-half shooting undid an otherwise impressive performance from the Terriers, who held Lehigh\u2019s red-hot shooters to 36.5% shooting from the field and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":21477,"featured_media":36133,"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\/36305"}],"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\/21477"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36305"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36305\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":36308,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36305\/revisions\/36308"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/36133"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36305"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36305"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36305"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}