{"id":45506,"date":"2024-12-16T17:21:51","date_gmt":"2024-12-16T22:21:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/?p=45506"},"modified":"2024-12-16T17:22:11","modified_gmt":"2024-12-16T22:22:11","slug":"mens-basketball-terriers-fall-in-close-battle-to-merrimack","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/2024\/12\/16\/mens-basketball-terriers-fall-in-close-battle-to-merrimack\/","title":{"rendered":"Men’s Basketball: Terriers Fall in Close Battle to Merrimack"},"content":{"rendered":"

Featured image by Troy Bolduc<\/em><\/p>\n

By Austin Rayamajhi<\/em><\/p>\n

Boston University Men\u2019s Basketball (5-6, 0-0 PL) took on the Merrimack Warriors Men\u2019s Basketball (5-6, 0-0 MAAC) on Friday night, resulting in a heartbreaking 64-61 loss for the Terriers.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe two halves, the start of the first half and the start of the second half really, really hurt us,\u201d said Head Coach Joe Jones. \u201cWe did not play well to start either half.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The Terriers struggled to open up the game, going nearly the first six minutes without scoring. Merrimack was able to go up 11-0 before freshman center Ben Defty opened up the scoring for BU off an assist from junior forward Otto Landrum after the pair checked in off the bench.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The Terriers went down 13 before Landrum assisted Defty again and BU was finally able to get into the game at this point. Landrum scored or assisted on the Terriers first ten points, helping BU close the deficit to five points near the end of the first half.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Landrum closed the first half with five assists after putting up two assists in his first two games of the season. Senior forward Malcolm Chimezie led the Terriers with ten points as they closed the first half down eight.<\/span><\/p>\n

For the Warriors, sophomore guard Adam Clark led the way with ten points. Clark is averaging nearly 20 points per game, putting him in the top 25 of all players in the nation. Merrimack was also able to take advantage of BU\u2019s sloppy play, forcing the Terriers to commit 7 turnovers.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The second half started back and forth between both teams before the Warriors began to pull away four minutes into the half. Jones decided to completely bench the lineup he started the second half with after falling down by 15, pulling all five of the guys on the court in hopes to get back into the game.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Clark was able to hold off the Terriers from making a run for a while, getting up to a game-high 18 points before checking out around the nine minute mark. BU was able to go on a run to cut the deficit from 11 points down to three points with five minutes left in the game.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Crunch time saw both teams play their best basketball. BU\u2019s leading scorer on the season, Sophomore guard Kyrone Alexander, struggled the entire game but stepped up in the final couple minutes, scoring a three and then a floater. After graduate forward Sean Trumper committed a crucial foul with seven seconds left, Alexander had a chance to tie the game for BU.<\/span><\/p>\n

Alexander drilled the first free throw, but missed the second. Senior guard Devon Savage for Merrimack grabbed the rebound and Graduate guard Matt Becht sinked two free throws to give the Warriors a three-point lead.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

BU still had a chance with three seconds left. However, graduate guard Miles Brewster had a turnover off the inbound and the Terriers comeback fell short.<\/span><\/p>\n

The story of the game for the Terriers was their ability to knock down shots. BU missed more free throws, six, than they made, five, and shot just 30% from three compared to 47.4% from three for Merrimack.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe ended up shooting 30% from three and we just needed a few more,\u201d said Jones. \u201cWe just needed to stop them to get better looks.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

BU will have a week off before they look to bounce back against UMass Lowell on December 21st. The game is at Lowell at 2 p.m. and will stream on ESPN+.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Featured image by Troy Bolduc By Austin Rayamajhi Boston University Men\u2019s Basketball (5-6, 0-0 PL) took on the Merrimack Warriors Men\u2019s Basketball (5-6, 0-0 MAAC) on Friday night, resulting in a heartbreaking 64-61 loss for the Terriers. \u201cThe two halves, the start of the first half and the start of the second half really, really […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23099,"featured_media":45352,"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\/45506"}],"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\/23099"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45506"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45506\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":45508,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45506\/revisions\/45508"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/45352"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45506"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45506"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45506"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}