{"id":51874,"date":"2025-12-11T17:57:59","date_gmt":"2025-12-11T22:57:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/?p=51874"},"modified":"2025-12-11T17:57:59","modified_gmt":"2025-12-11T22:57:59","slug":"mens-basketball-terriers-succumb-to-shooting-struggles-fall-to-visiting-black-bears-69-59","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/2025\/12\/11\/mens-basketball-terriers-succumb-to-shooting-struggles-fall-to-visiting-black-bears-69-59\/","title":{"rendered":"Men’s Basketball: Terriers Succumb to Shooting Struggles, Fall To Visiting Black Bears 69-59"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Featured Image By Alex Chen<\/p>\n

By Oliver Hettenbach<\/p>\n

The Boston University men\u2019s basketball team (4-7) handed the University of Maine (1-11) its first win of the season in a 69-59 loss Tuesday.<\/span><\/p>\n

After Maine forward T.J. Biel hit a three-pointer to open the score 100 seconds into the game, the Terriers fell behind and would remain trailing for 38 of the ensuing 38:20 minutes.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The story of the game was when the Black Bears, around halfway through the first half, switched into a 3-2 zone defense. Eliminating the threat of sophomore forward Ben Defty\u2019s towering height advantage, the Terriers were forced into a different style of offense. The Terriers could never field an adequate response, however, posting 15 turnovers while shooting 9-35 (25.7%) from beyond the arc.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThen on the offensive end, I thought the zone really gave us trouble,\u201d\u00a0said head coach Joe Jones. \u201cWe had a hard time seeing over the defense, the size of our guards.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The absence of freshman guard Chance Gladden was tangible, as he is one of the Terriers\u2019 larger guards and premier passers. The skip passes to dissect the zone were missing entirely from their offense tonight.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cLike Chance would have been able to kind of make some of those plays, and so that really, you know, confounded our offensive attack, I thought,\u201d said Jones. \u201cAnd then I thought we missed some. We missed, you know, we missed; we were nine for 35, we also missed some good ones.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

With the injuries that have riddled this Terrier squad since the season began, Jones was forced to put out an unconventional two-center lineup. Defty cut up from the baseline to the center of the zone, trying to be the key that unlocked the padlock of the Black Bears’ zone. As a result, graduate forward Malcom Chimezie ended the game with just two attempted field goals.<\/span><\/p>\n

Black Bear guard Mekhi Gray had an emphatic two-handed, contested dunk to put the University of Maine up eight late in the first half, after which he let out a vehement scream that rippled through Case Gym. That moment served as a catalyst for their seizing of momentum, after which the visitors never relinquished it.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Terriers showed signs of life coming out of halftime after freshman forward Sam Hughes rattled off a trio of three pointers, which, paired with a layup made by Defty, tied the game at 35.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Hughes, the only Terrier who had a positive plus-minus, picked up his third and fourth fouls in a timespan of six seconds. The latter prompted an on-court review, which was ruled a flagrant one. Around four minutes later, Hughes would pick up his fifth foul with 4:52 left in the game.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI think he\u2019s a guy that, that\u2019s a talented player, that you know, he\u2019s dependent on to do so much as a freshman,\u201d said Jones on Hughes\u2019 performance. \u201cI\u2019ve watched Javonte McCoy struggle as a freshman with different aspects of the game.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Injuries continue to plague this Terrier team, as they have from the season\u2019s beginning. The Terriers really miss the impact of junior guard Kyrone Alexander, who went down with a knee injury on November 3.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m hoping that we can get him back soon, but he\u2019s not practicing yet,\u201d said Jones. \u201cIt\u2019s a yeah, we got to figure some things out.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The Terriers will make the short trip to Hanover, New Hampshire, to face off against Dartmouth on Saturday at 2 p.m.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Featured Image By Alex Chen By Oliver Hettenbach The Boston University men\u2019s basketball team (4-7) handed the University of Maine (1-11) its first win of the season in a 69-59 loss Tuesday. After Maine forward T.J. Biel hit a three-pointer to open the score 100 seconds into the game, the Terriers fell behind and would […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":21478,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1027,19],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51874"}],"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\/21478"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=51874"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51874\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":51875,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51874\/revisions\/51875"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=51874"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=51874"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=51874"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}