{"id":40765,"date":"2024-03-11T10:41:52","date_gmt":"2024-03-11T14:41:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/?p=40765"},"modified":"2024-03-11T11:06:10","modified_gmt":"2024-03-11T15:06:10","slug":"the-balloon-pops-bu-mens-basketball-cant-survive-another-thriller-falls-to-lehigh-in-patriot-league-semifinal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/2024\/03\/11\/the-balloon-pops-bu-mens-basketball-cant-survive-another-thriller-falls-to-lehigh-in-patriot-league-semifinal\/","title":{"rendered":"THE BALLOON POPS: BU Men\u2019s Basketball can\u2019t survive another thriller, falls to Lehigh in Patriot League semifinal"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

BOSTON \u2014 Miles Brewster leaned back in his seat on the bench, some dozens of feet away from the free throw line where Lehigh\u2019s Tyler Whitney-Sidney had just drained the shot that finally ended it. There would, for real this time, be no tomorrow. BU\u2019s senior guard held a rubber band in his hands \u2014 perhaps, one that was used to support the enormous afro of this team\u2019s ever-expressive leader \u2014 lifted his arms above his head and pulled them apart.<\/span><\/p>\n

Snap.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

It was over. Right then and there. The balloon of optimism BU had kept blowing into popped. The sheer belief of a team that no one thought would be here died. And the tightrope the Terriers had for so long walked \u2014 one so thin it might as well have been that damn rubber band \u2014 finally gave.<\/span><\/p>\n

Lehigh 84, Boston University 79. In overtime, at Case Gym, in the Patriot League semifinals.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s never going to leave you,\u201d head coach Joe Jones said. \u201cYou\u2019re always going to look back and feel like you let one get away.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Maybe this was inevitable, that time would eventually run out on these cardiac kids. It is a compelling point. Because, man, BU was truly flirting with fire here, having made a habit of blowing enormous halftime leads before somehow finding a way to bail itself out. So when the Terriers stormed to an 18-point halftime lead Sunday, then made one basket in the next eight-and-a-half minutes to give it all away, you wouldn\u2019t have been out of reason to conclude it was simply one time too many.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s kinda been the tale all year,\u201d senior Anthony Morales said. Added Jones: \u201cI wasn\u2019t surprised they got back in the game.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Yet BU appeared quite stunned that it actually ended this way. As it began to slip away, Morales (career-high 27 points) leaned over, put his hands on his knees, and stared blankly down the court as Lehigh celebrated. After the buzzer, freshman Kyrone Alexander (18 points) rested his hands on his head, briefly brought them down for the handshake line, then hoisted them right back up as he walked out of the gym. Through it all, Brewster could barely even blink.<\/span><\/p>\n

It had really started to feel like what was happening here was destiny. The Terriers led Loyola Maryland by 14 at the half two Sundays ago and blew it, then led Holy Cross by 17 eight days ago and let that one go too. BU, somehow, won both times, the first in overtime, and split the two games with another overtime victory over these very Mountain Hawks on a reverse layup at the horn.<\/span><\/p>\n

That <\/span><\/i>was the meat of the six-game winning streak that got BU here.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe hit our stride,\u201d Morales said. After starting conference play 2-5, they were beginning to feel legitimately invincible. In their own twisted, bizzare-o way. And there was something oddly intentional about that. For a while this season the Terriers were straight up bad, until they just\u2026weren\u2019t anymore. What Jones called \u201cprobably the most coachable team he\u2019s ever coached,\u201d looked itself in the eye time and time again and held itself accountable. It fixed its problems or, better yet, learned how to win despite them. BU was young and perilously inexperienced \u2014 of course it was going to be a roller coaster \u2014 but no team was better at buckling down when the heat turned up.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cOur focus was able to go into just trying to get better,\u201d Jones said. \u201cAnd then you start feeling that way, right? As a player you start feeling, \u2018man, this is pretty cool.\u2019 Everybody\u2019s on the same page, just working, working, working. And we are a lot better right now than we were even a month ago.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

And then, like that, BU was out. Whitney-Sidney\u2019s running hook to make the lead four with 18 ticks left in overtime, Keith Higgins\u2019 fadeaway logo 3-pointer as the shot clock expired late in the second half and Cam Gilus\u2019 30 points and six triples were altogether just too big a punch for BU to take.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe freshman Gilus,\u201d Morales said, \u201cjust killed us.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The 5-foot-11 guard averaging four points a game hung 18 on BU in the second half alone. Overall, in 43 minutes on the floor, he missed three shots. All of it as Whitney-Sidney and Higgins, Lehigh\u2019s two star guards, combined to shoot 8-for-20 from the field and 2-for-8 from 3. \u201cA freshman who isn\u2019t known for scoring gets 30,\u201d Morales rued. \u201cWe did a pretty good job on the guys we talked about.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

But for a brief moment, not even <\/span>that <\/span><\/i>appeared enough to derail BU\u2019s destiny. With four seconds to go in regulation and down by one, Brewster, who BU would \u201cnot even be close to the program we are without,\u201d Jones said, stepped to the line for two shots. Back on February 3, in this very same building, Brewster stepped to the very same free throw line against the very same team facing the very same deficit with the very same amount of time to play. He made both that day, clinching the Terriers\u2019 fourth conference win, and off to the races they went. BU went on to win seven of nine.<\/span><\/p>\n

Now here he was again. Destiny.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The first shot was butter. The second? An agonizing inch short, probably less. It clanked off the front iron. For the leader of the team for which all of the stars were aligning, it just wasn\u2019t meant to be.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s basketball,\u201d Jones said.<\/span><\/p>\n

At the end of the day \u2014 that was all it was. All this had ever been. Just basketball. A make-or-miss sport. And, \u201cultimately,\u201d Morales said, \u201cThey hit more shots than we did.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

And with that, Brewster gathered the two separated pieces of rubber band and spiked them onto the floor in front of him. Because sure, it\u2019s basketball, and as Jones said, \u201cno one deserved to lose.\u201d But when the horn sounded, BU had finally lost.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe had the game,\u201d Morales said, later admitting he had already gotten his crying out of the way. \u201cWe had it.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

FEATURED IMAGE BY JACOB IRELAND<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Sam Robb O\u2019Hagan BOSTON \u2014 Miles Brewster leaned back in his seat on the bench, some dozens of feet away from the free throw line where Lehigh\u2019s Tyler Whitney-Sidney had just drained the shot that finally ended it. There would, for real this time, be no tomorrow. BU\u2019s senior guard held a rubber band […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":21477,"featured_media":40518,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1026,1027,19],"tags":[1128,1129,1131,69,1145,1149,1327,1415],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40765"}],"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=40765"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40765\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":40771,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40765\/revisions\/40771"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/40518"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40765"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40765"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40765"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}