Down to its final chance, BU men's basketball finally wins a PL road game, 79-68, at Lehigh
The Terriers, who entered 0-8 on the road during conference play, finally got the monkey off their back.
On Dec. 29, after a tough-as-nails victory over the University of Maine in Orono, Joe Jones told Case in Point he thought the win would be one “we’ll look back on and say it was a turning point for us.”
It was just the second true road game the Boston University men’s basketball team had won all year, and it came in the non-conference finale against a legit America East opponent. BU had been inconsistent all season to that point, but the toughness and maturity the Terriers played with felt like something to build on.
Jones’ team had not won a road game since.
…Until Wednesday night.
At Stabler Arena in Bethlehem, Pa., BU defeated Lehigh, 79-68, for the Terriers’ very first road win of conference play in their final opportunity. BU, which is 8-0 at Case Gym during the league slate, improved to 15-15 and 9-8 in the Patriot League with one regular-season game left to play — Saturday’s home finale against Lafayette.
The win over the Mountain Hawks kept the Terriers alive for a home quarterfinal game in the Patriot League tournament. BU entered in sixth-place in the standings but only a game behind Colgate in fourth.
The Terriers’ 79 points were the most they’ve scored in a road conference game. BU entered averaging a staggering 53.5 points per game on the road during PL play — exactly 21 points less than it was averaging at home — but the Terriers didn’t have any trouble scoring on Wednesday.
That was despite BU going only 4 of 15 from downtown. The Terriers had plenty of open 3-pointers and missed nearly all of them, a constant problem on the road they still need to solve. But rebounding made up for it, as BU outpaced Lehigh in that category, 39-20, including a 14-0 advantage on the offensive glass. It meant the Terriers took 12 more shots than the Mountain Hawks.
BU’s leading scorer, sophomore Kyrone Alexander, finished with a team-high 21 points. He was only 4 of 11 from the field but went 12 of 12 from the free-throw line.
Seven different players scored for BU. The Terriers dominated in the post, and forwards Malcolm Chimezie and Ben Defty combined for 24 points on 12-of-19 shooting, while junior Nico Nobili finished with 12 rebounds.
It was obvious from the start that Wednesday night would be different for BU. The Terriers held Lehigh scoreless for the first six and a half minutes of the game. BU only built an 8-0 lead, such was the result of poor shooting at the other end, but once Mountain Hawk senior Tyler Whitney-Sidney made an individual run, the Terriers’ offense woke up, too.
By the end of the first half, BU had 36 points — the most it has scored in the first half of a road conference game this season. The Terriers shot 50 percent from the field in the first 20 minutes and led by eight points at the break, four days after they had limped to just 44 points for the entire game in a loss at American.
It was the first time BU has led at halftime on the road during PL play and just the second time overall.
Jones has lamented BU’s inability to handle in-game adversity on the road, but whenever Lehigh cut into the Terriers’ lead on Wednesday, BU immediately responded with a bucket at the other end. That included a miracle 3-pointer from graduate guard Miles Brewster (14 points) at the shot-clock buzzer late in the second half, which gave the Terriers a 69-64 lead.
The Mountain Hawks cut the BU lead to one possession at several points during both halves, but they never tied the game.
As is often the case, the Terriers couldn’t stop Whitney-Sidney; the senior finished with a career-high 32 points on 8 of 11 shooting. He scored 24 of Lehigh’s first 33 points, before sophomore Nasir Whitlock (24 points) erupted in the second half.
But BU did well defensively against everyone else, as Mountain Hawks that weren’t Whitney-Sidney or Whitlock combined for only 12 points.