BU men's basketball never takes the lead in home loss to Sacred Heart
Sophomore guards Kyrone Alexander (22 points) and Mike McNair (18) were excellent, but a lack of contributions elsewhere doomed the Terriers, who fell to 1-3 at home.
BOSTON — Joe Jones took his seat in the Eilberg Lounge above Case Gym and did not mince words regarding his team's performance.
“I can’t say I’m shocked by the outcome,” said BU’s head coach. “I did not think we were great coming off two wins. I thought we let the success of last week impact us.”
“We were not locked in the way you need to be locked in.”
Following back-to-back wins over UMBC and Howard, the Boston University men’s basketball team never led in Sunday’s 73-65 home loss to Sacred Heart.
SHU (3-5) is nothing to write home about. The Pioneers picked up early season losses to Holy Cross (picked to finish 9th in the Patriot League preseason poll) and Dartmouth, who BU dispatched with ease, 78-50, on Nov. 16.
But the Terriers (3-5) opened to a disastrous start on their home court, falling behind 17-4 within eight minutes, giving up five early 3-pointers. Offensively, the Terriers started 2 for 13 from the field and 0 for 6 from 3.
“We were terrible to start the game. We were awful,” said Jones. “We were awful at every facet. Defensively, offensively, we were not very good. At all.”
Sacred Heart punctuated its hot start with an alley-oop slam by freshman Nyle Ralph-Beyer off a midcourt dime from junior Griffin Barrouk. It gave the Pioneers a 26-12 lead with just under nine minutes left in the half.
“We had to climb out of a hole at home,” said Jones, “to be honest with you, that should not happen.”
That, however, was the last field goal Sacred Heart scored for close to eight minutes.
The Terriers went on a 14-1 run over the next four minutes. Sophomore guard Michael McNair connected on a four-point play to start the run and classmate Kyrone Alexander punctuated it with a midrange jumper to cut the deficit to one, 27-26, at the five minute mark.
What followed was four minutes of scoreless basketball. BU had six straight trips with a chance to take the lead. Instead the Terriers missed three shots and then turned it over on three consecutive trips.
“We missed some makeable shots that we usually make,” said Jones.
At the half, Sacred Heart clung to a 30-28 lead.
BU tied the game three times in the opening four minutes of the second half. Alexander started the half with a midrange jumper. 40 seconds later, McNair got fouled on a 3 and made all three free throws. A minute later, Alexander connected on a corner 3 in front of BU’s bench to deadlock the score once more.
The Terriers then went scoreless for 6 minutes and 23 seconds. Sacred Heart pulled away with a 14-0 run to take a 50-36 lead.
“I thought it was a microcosm of what was happening. It just kind of all happened in that one run they had,” said Jones. “We got it close and then we weren’t able to consistently play the way we need to be able to play to take the lead.”
“We kind of looked a little disjointed offensively,” he added.
BU slowly cut into the deficit. McNair nailed a 3 and a midrange jumper to end the scoring drought midway through the second half.
He drilled a pair of 3s on back-to-back offensive possessions with just over five minutes remaining. BU trailed 56-49.
Alexander further closed the gap by getting to the free throw line on three separate trips. He made all six free throws to bring the Terriers within one possession, 60-57, with 2:56 on the clock.
Alexander finished with 22 points on 7-of-11 shooting. McNair added 18 on 5 of 9 from the field and 4 for 8 from deep. Both scoring outputs marked season highs.
“Taking advantage of closeouts,” said Alexander when asked what worked for him, “getting into the paint and taking my time and just finishing in there, to be honest. Getting to the free throw line as well.”
Terriers outside of Alexander and McNair combined for 25 points on 8 for 37 shooting from the field.
“We didn’t get great contributions from everybody. Some guys weren’t able to help us much at all,” said Jones. “But those two in particular were, you know, they made shots.”
“They kept us in it,” he added.
BU could not complete its late surge, falling victim to five straight points from freshman guard Mekhi Conner, including a deep 3 from near the midcourt logo that gave the Pioneers an eight point lead with just over a minute remaining.
“They made some tough shots. They made some deep shots. You know, they deserve the win. They made the plays to win the game,” Jones said.
Sacred Heart only shot 41.8 percent from the field (23 for 55), but connected on 13 of 28 triples.
The Terriers only connected on 35 percent of their field goal attempts.
“It’s hard to win consistently when you’re shooting that poorly,” said Jones.
The loss now drops BU to 1-3 at home with losses to Northeastern, Wagner and Sacred Heart.
“Especially for me, I feel like protecting home court is a very important thing,” said Alexander. “I feel like, not only like we disappointed ourselves, but everybody that came out to watch and support us. So definitely another hit at just us as people and our pride.”
“This one hurts because you know you’re capable of playing better than this. That’s what’s hard,” Jones added. “For some reason we have not been able to keep our foot on the gas and play at a consistent level.”