Instant takeaways from BU men's basketball's 60-46 loss at Lafayette in the Patriot League opener
The Terriers fell victim to a 13-0 Lafayette run late and were plagued by their worst shooting performance of the season.
An ice-cold shooting performance, plus a late collapse at the other end, doomed the Boston University men’s basketball team in its Patriot League opener Thursday night, as the Terriers fell to Lafayette, 60-46, at Kirby Sports Center in Easton, Pa.
BU shot a ghastly 4 of 21 from behind the arc (19 percent), its worst 3-point outing of the year, and was just 18 of 54 from the field (33 percent). The Terriers’ 18 baskets were their third-fewest of the season.
Still, BU (6-8, 0-1 Patriot League) hung around throughout the game, heading into the final 10 minutes tied with the Leopards at 43. But a late surge from Lafayette doomed the Terriers, who lost their third consecutive conference opener.
Here are three takeaways from the loss…
A late Lafayette run killed BU.
After taking its first lead of the game a minute prior, the Terriers were deadlocked with the Leopards midway through the second half. BU then surrendered a 13-0 Lafayette run over the next six minutes, as the Terriers missed a bevy of good looks and struggled to rebound the Leopards’ own misses at the other end.
It was a far cry from BU’s last game — the non-conference finale at Maine — when the Terriers executed perfectly down the stretch and earned a huge win in the final minute.
The Terriers couldn’t do anything right down the stretch on Thursday, and it cost them.
BU’s offensive performance was just… weird
The Terriers’ 23 first-half points were their fourth-lowest in an opening half this season (the lowest was 19 against Maine on Sunday) — and BU’s biggest problems were dropped passes and missed layups.
BU’s been awesome in the post this year, but against Lafayette’s size (three forwards 6-foot-10 and above), the Terriers struggled to finish inside. The misses weren’t bunnies — at least most of them — but BU left a ton of points on the board in the opening frame. Things weren’t much different from behind the arc; BU shot 1 of 10 from 3 in the first half, and several misses were halfway down before suddenly popping out.
The Terriers endured scoreless droughts of both five and six minutes in the first half, and trailed at the break, 31-23, despite playing mostly excellent defense and outrebounding the Leopards, 25-18.
It stayed weird in the second half. After failing on layups all first half, senior forward Malcolm Chimezie opened the second on a personal 7-0 run — all from layups — then failed to make a shot for the rest of the game. From 3-point land, meanwhile, sophomore guard Mike McNair and freshman guard Azmar Abdullah both missed wide-open wing triples, then promptly made two heavily contested shots from the same spots — Abdullah was fouled on his — to give BU its first two leads of the game. McNair — who entered with the third-best 3-point percentage in the Patriot League — continued to miss good looks that he usually makes the rest of the way. Abdullah, for his part, later missed an uncontested up-and-under layup after a perfect backdoor cut, what would’ve been a critical bucket as BU trailed by five with around seven minutes to go.
Offensive rebounding kept BU in the game early, then defensive rebounding cost BU late.
Five minutes in, BU already had five offensive boards and seven second-chance points. The fight on the glass was a lifeline for the Terriers, who struggled on initial offensive actions to start the game while the Leopards went on a 3-point barrage at the other end.
Lafayette scored on four consecutive triples after making two free throws on its first possession, jumping out to an early 14-8 lead. But BU kept itself in reach with its second-chance points until it finally relaxed on offense, when the Terriers began to execute the pick-and-roll with forwards Ben Defty and Nico Nobili. Then — for some reason — BU became discombobulated on offense again down the stretch of the half, going six minutes without scoring.
With three minutes to play in the frame, Alexander rebounded a missed 3-pointer from graduate guard Miles Brewster, then collected his own miss, to finally break the drought with a rebound under the basket.
Problem was — in the second half, Lafayette went on an offensive-rebounding streak itself, collecting eight in the final 20 minutes. BU’s inability to rebound Lafayette’s misses cost it dearly across the Leopard’s game-winning run. In the end, the teams had 11 offensive rebounds each and BU was outrebounded overall, 43-41, despite entering the game with the conference’s best rebounding margin.