{"id":39821,"date":"2023-12-22T19:23:12","date_gmt":"2023-12-23T00:23:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/?p=39821"},"modified":"2023-12-22T19:23:50","modified_gmt":"2023-12-23T00:23:50","slug":"mens-basketball-second-half-surge-not-enough-as-bu-falls-to-umass-lowell","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/2023\/12\/22\/mens-basketball-second-half-surge-not-enough-as-bu-falls-to-umass-lowell\/","title":{"rendered":"Men\u2019s Basketball: Second half surge not enough as BU falls to UMass Lowell"},"content":{"rendered":"

Featured image by Jacob<\/em> Ireland<\/em><\/p>\n

By Henry Dinh-Price<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

Too little, too late.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

After falling behind by 21 points at halftime, Boston University men\u2019s basketball (4-8) came up short in their second half comeback attempt, falling 71-63 against the UMass Lowell River Hawks (8-4) at Case Gym on Friday.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

At the halftime break, the Terriers were down 46-25. The River Hawks shot 60 percent (15-for-25) from the field and 55 percent (6-for-11) from 3 in the opening 20 minutes.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Meanwhile, BU shot 1-for-9 from behind the arc and 39 percent overall. The Terriers also committed nine first-half turnovers and only dished out two assists.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cObviously we were dismal in the first half,\u201d BU head coach Joe Jones said.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Despite the lopsided scoreboard at halftime, the game was tied at 19 when both teams went to the huddle for a media timeout with 7:42 left in the first period.<\/span><\/p>\n

The remaining 7:42 is when things fell apart for BU.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Lowell ended the half on 27-6 run to take a commanding lead into the halftime break.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe struggled in the last eight minutes of the half. You know, basically we just played a really bad eight minutes,\u201d Jones said.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Without a go-to scorer, the Terriers are susceptible to these long lulls. When opposing teams start to go on a run, there isn\u2019t a player that Jones can hand the ball to and tell him to go get a bucket to stop the bleeding.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

And even with so many role players, it\u2019s hard to tell which ones Jones trusts. 12 players saw action on Friday, 11 of which played in the first nine minutes.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re struggling with a level of consistency from most of the guys,\u201d Jones said. \u201cRight now, I think we\u2019re going into games thinking we got to play nine or 10. And then it gets stretched out because of foul trouble or someone\u2019s not really getting the job done.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Starting sophomore forwards Otto Landrum and Nico Nobili each received three personal fouls in the first half. Foul trouble has been an issue for both all season.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

While BU\u2019s struggles were evident, Lowell lit up the scoreboard in the first half, with two role players leading the way.<\/span><\/p>\n

Senior guard Yuri Covington, sixth on the River Hawks in scoring entering the contest, and junior forward Cam Morris III, ranked fourth, scored at will.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Covington scored 21 first-half points and finished the contest with 28 while making seven 3-pointers. Morris III added an additional 25, 15 of which came before halftime to propel Lowell to a massive lead.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re only role players because of the talent around them. These dudes are very capable. Especially Covington,\u201d Jones said.<\/span><\/p>\n

The River Hawks top scorer on the season, senior guard Ayinde Hikim, who averages 17 points per game, was held to a modest 10 points on 1-for-8 shooting. But Covington and Morris III stepped up.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s the part of this when you\u2019re trying to take one guy away. If they\u2019re a good team, the other guys can hurt you and tonight they did that,\u201d Jones said.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The Terriers made it a game in the second half, however, as their defense held Lowell to just 30 percent shooting after the intermission.<\/span><\/p>\n

After trading points for the first five minutes of the half, the Terriers started to chip away with a 7-0 run to cut the deficit to 50-36 with 13 minutes remaining.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Four minutes later, BU capped off another 7-0 run with a left wing 3 by senior guard Miles Brewster to decrease the Lowell lead to 10 points, at 55-45.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Brewster, BU\u2019s team captain, scored a career-high 17 points, 11 of which came in the second half as he looked to will the Terriers back into the game.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI thought he was great. Gave us a big lift, gave us a lot of confidence,\u201d Jones said.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Following Brewster\u2019s 3-pointer, Lowell went on a crucial 6-2 stretch to bring their lead back to 14 off 3s from Morris III and Covington.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIn the second half we had momentum, but they made some big 3s. I thought that was the one thing, they were able to make threes to keep us at bay,\u201d Jones said.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The Terriers clawed back once again, however, this time on a 9-0 run.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Brewster drove to the rim before kicking it out to a wide open Landrum at the top of the key. Landrum buried the triple, trimming the deficit to just five points, at 61-56.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

90 seconds later, a Brewster layup made it 64-60 with two minutes remaining.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

However, this is as close as it would get, as Lowell rattled off six straight points. A side-step 3 by Covington made it 70-60 with 49 seconds remaining \u2014 not enough time for the Terriers to mount a comeback.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Ultimately, the story of the game for BU was the hole they dug themselves into after a lackluster first half and their inability to make 3-pointers. The Terriers shot just 4-of-21 from beyond the arc.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI thought we had enough open shots to make it a game, you know, but we didn\u2019t shoot it great,\u201d Jones said.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

With Patriot League play starting on January 3 against Navy, the Terriers still have a lot of work to do and not a lot of time to do it.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe look like an inexperienced team still,\u201d Jones said. \u201cI thought we had made some strides on that but you know, coming back off the loss to Dartmouth and then the break, I just thought we kind of fizzled in this one.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

After a short break for the holidays, BU will look to bounce back against Merrimack (6-7) as they wrap up non-conference play at Case Gymnasium on December 30.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Featured image by Jacob Ireland By Henry Dinh-Price Too little, too late.\u00a0 After falling behind by 21 points at halftime, Boston University men\u2019s basketball (4-8) came up short in their second half comeback attempt, falling 71-63 against the UMass Lowell River Hawks (8-4) at Case Gym on Friday.\u00a0 At the halftime break, the Terriers were […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23098,"featured_media":39619,"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\/39821"}],"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\/23098"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39821"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39821\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":39822,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39821\/revisions\/39822"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/39619"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39821"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39821"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39821"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}