Even in another road loss, BU men’s basketball makes progress at Loyola Maryland
The Terriers still couldn't get over the hump away from Case Gym, but there were plenty of things to build on.
Trailing by two with 13 seconds left on Saturday afternoon, the Boston University men’s basketball team went to an end-of-game play it’s relied on all season. Graduate guard and preseason All-Patriot League selection Miles Brewster took the sideline inbounds following a BU timeout. The concept was simple.
“We were trying to get Miles downhill,” head coach Joe Jones said postgame.
Back on Jan. 15 against Lehigh, BU did the same with 41 seconds left and Brewster sunk the dagger with an easy layup. Same story way back on Nov. 23 at UMBC.
There aren’t many players at the low mid-major level that can keep the hyper-athletic Brewster in front of them. And when Loyola Maryland switched the initial ball screen on Saturday, Brewster found himself isolated on his left side against a 6-foot-10, 235-pound big man.
“When they do that, and the floor is open, we should just try to get by ‘em and make a play,” Jones said.
But Brewster (13 points), who was excellent all game moving downhill, tried to get back to his right hand. That invited another ball screen, which allowed for a predictable result — the Greyhounds switching again, moving their guard back onto Brewster.
“We needed to get downhill off that first one,” Jones said.
Brewster wasn’t able to blow by junior guard Tyson Commander. The play deteriorated and ended with sophomore guard Mike McNair chucking up an off-balance 3-pointer that would’ve won the game. It missed the rim, and BU lost, 69-67, at Reitz Arena in Baltimore, Md.
Another potential turning point during this up-and-down season came and went.
“Tough one for us,” Jones admitted.
The easy takeaway would be to lament that BU (11-12, 5-5 PL) lost on the road again. Again. The Terriers, who are on a seven-game winning streak at Case Gym, are now 0-5 during Patriot League play, and 2-9 overall, in road games. It’s an astounding number, considering Jones’ 13 BU teams before this one were a combined 99-122 on the road — which isn't a good record, but it isn’t that bad, either. All of a sudden, the Terriers just can’t find a way to win away from Case.
But Saturday’s road loss to the Greyhounds (9-12, 4-6 PL) was not like the rest, and that — even though the result was maddeningly frustrating — was a significant step forward.
“We played better,” Jones said.
In its three road losses prior to Saturday, BU averaged 53 points a game and lost by a combined 58. Its offense was so slow and confused it left Jones “distraught.” So losing to Loyola by a basket, with a chance to win the game on the final possession, was hardly a crisis relative to what these Terriers have already been through.
Throw in the fact that BU shot just 40 percent from the field and a putrid 3 of 18 from 3 — while the Hounds were at 47 percent and 9 of 22 — and the Terriers were still that close to winning, and it was hard for Jones to be terribly disappointed in his postgame zoom call.
Another layer to that — BU, the Patriot League’s worst free-throw shooting team at 64 percent, was 14 of 18 from the stripe (though it did miss two critical ones in the final minute). BU is also worst in the conference in turnover margin, but committed only 10 on Saturday while forcing 14.
“We’re not going to get too down when we did some things well and didn’t win,” Jones said. “If you would have told me we had 10 turnovers and were 14 of 18 from the foul line? I feel pretty good.”
And BU didn’t shoot that poorly because its offense couldn’t operate. Far from it. The Terriers were excellent down low — outscoring the Hounds, 42-24, in the paint — and dominated the glass, recording 12 offensive rebounds to Loyola’s four. Senior center Malcolm Chimezie, about as important a player for BU’s offense as there is, was excellent, scoring 16 points on 7-of-11 shooting.
BU found plenty of open looks from downtown, too, and most of them were for its best shooters.
“We don’t normally take bad 3s,” Jones said. “So I would suspect the 3s we missed were good ones.”
Brewster and sophomore guards Kyrone Alexander (16 points) and Mike McNair, BU’s three leading scorers, were a combined 1 of 12 from downtown.
“You know, you go 3 of 18 from 3 and they go 9 for 22, it’s hard to win that game,” Jones added. “And with that being said, we lost by two.”
Jones’ goal for BU’s offense is to be scoring in the high 60s and for the third consecutive game, the Terriers hit that threshold. Think about this: BU got to 67 on Saturday, its fourth-highest mark of conference play, and it couldn’t make anything.
If their best players hit open 3-pointers at a normal rate, the Terriers would’ve been in the 80s. And, of course, they would’ve won.
“That,” Jones said, “is how good we can be.”
Sure, there’s a lot of “if’s,” in there — BU still has to actually start knocking down those shots. But Jones didn’t sound alarmed by the shooting struggles after the game, nor did he sound all that concerned about, well, anything. Asked if he thought the loss could be deflating for a team that still hasn’t won three consecutive games this season, Jones said, “Nah. I don’t go for that.”
“Anytime you lose, you’re gonna be upset,” he added. “But come Monday we’ll be ready to get back and get ready for Wednesday. None of these losses has impacted our ability to get ourselves ready for the next game.”
Given that Wednesday’s game is at home (against Navy), BU will likely win. Then it will have to hit the road again for a Saturday afternoon matchup at Holy Cross, where it will need its first conference win away from Case just as badly as it did in Baltimore.
That part hasn’t changed.
But make no mistake — the quality of BU’s performances sure have.