Instant takeaways from BU men's basketball's 68-62 loss at Army
The Terriers fell behind by as many as 23 points and, despite a valiant effort, were unable to complete the comeback.
The Boston University men’s basketball team fell behind by as many as 23 points and trailed 41-20 at halftime. The Terriers fought back in the second half, but could not regain the lead, falling to the Army Black Knights, 68-62, at Christl Arena in West Point N.Y. on Saturday.
Here are three takeaways from BU’s loss…
In the first half, Army denied BU’s forwards and the Terrier guards failed to step up
Army fronted the post, not allowing BU any easy passing lanes into the paint. It was able to take BU’s bigs out of the contest. In the first half, BU’s four forwards combined for two points (a layup from senior Malcolm Chimezie) and two shot attempts. The Black Knights employed the same strategy against BU on Jan. 5, but the Terrier guards stepped up to deliver the win. Sophomore Mike McNair scored 17, graduate Miles Brewster and junior Ben Roy added 12, and senior Ben Palacios dropped 10. In that Jan. 5 contest, BU had a stretch where it made seven straight field goals.
In the first half, however, BU’s guards struggled mightily. They continued to look for passes down low, which Army’s forwards denied. The Terriers then settled for swinging the ball around the perimeter. It ended with contested late-shot clock opportunities far too often. BU failed to penetrate and its 3s landed well off the mark.
In the first half, BU scored just 20 points, shooting 7 of 20 from the field, 2 for 11 from 3 and turning the ball over eight times.
BU’s offense flipped the script in the second half
BU’s offense looked completely different in the second half. The Terriers got the ball inside, which opened up everything else. In the second half, BU scored 20 points in the paint, compared to only eight in the first half.
Junior forwards Nico Nobili and Otto Landrum executed the high-low offense to get layups inside and BU’s forwards took pride in getting positioning down low.
As for the guards, Ben Roy relentlessly drove to the rim. He scored a career-high 17 points on 6-of-7 shooting, 13 of which came in the second half. His aggressiveness added another dimension to the Terrier offense, which had looked stagnant in the opening frame.
In the second half, BU scored 42 points on 15-of-26 shooting and only committed one turnover.
BU did not have the answer for Jalen Rucker
5-foot-10 senior guard Jalen Rucker is the Patriot League’s leading scorer. He showed why on Saturday, scoring 23 points going 8 for 12 from the field and 4 of 7 from deep.
As the Terriers launched their comeback attempt, down by as many as 23 points, Rucker continued to drill shot after shot to keep BU at arm’s length. BU did not have an offensive possession to cut the deficit to a one-possession game until the final 30 seconds.
BU cut the deficit to five right after the under-eight timeout. It was the closest the Terriers had been since early in the first half. Rucker responded with a fadeaway jumper over Roy from eight feet out.
BU cut it to five again with just under six minutes remaining. Rucker drilled a contested straightaway 3 over Brewster’s outstretched contest. Sophomore guard Spencer Joyner scored a layup on the next possession. Rucker answered once more for a driving lefty layup to put the Black Knights up by eight.