Instant takeaways from BU men's basketball's 76-60 loss at Bucknell
Bucknell used a 28-10 run in the second half to pull away. The Terriers are now 0-7 in road Patriot League games.
The Boston University men’s basketball team entered Sojka Pavillion winless on the road in Patriot League play. Bucknell had yet to lose at home in conference.
Nothing changed on Wednesday night.
BU never led and fell to the Bison, 76-60, marking a seventh-straight road defeat.
The Terriers (12-14, 6-7 Patriot League) are now two losses away from a winless road campaign in conference play.
Here are three takeaways from the loss…
Bucknell pulled away in a sequence eerily similar to Saturday’s loss at Holy Cross.
On Saturday, BU’s only lead, 8-7, came four minutes in. The Terriers then failed to execute on either end as Holy Cross opened up a 17-point advantage, 31-14.
“We had a hard time just doing anything,” Jones said after that Holy Cross loss.
But BU fought back and cut the deficit to four, 45-41. That was until Crusader freshman star Max Green split a ball screen and unleashed a thunderous dunk. Green’s slam sparked a 15-3 run and the Terriers had no answer.
Wednesday’s loss in Lewisburg, Pa. was much of the same. The Terriers started extremely slow. They had just three points eight minutes into the contest. But after an excellent defensive effort over the final 10 minutes of the first half, BU only trailed by five at the break. It cut that deficit down to just one, 36-35, with 14:33 to play after junior forward Otto Landrum drilled a straightaway 3.
But the Terriers could not force stops after that. The Bison (12-14, 8-5 PL) surged on an extended 28-10 run over the next eight minutes to take a commanding 64-45 lead. On one crucial possession, star Noah Williamson (8 points, 9 rebounds) missed his second free throw, but Bucknell tracked down the rebound and found Jayden Williams (11 points) for an open 3.
In an ugly first half, BU’s offense was a letdown.
BU was held scoreless for the opening five and a half minutes. When the Terriers finally got on the board, trailing 7-0, it was freshman sparkplug Azmar Abdullah (5 points) drilling a step back 3.
Starting guards Mike McNair (10 points) and Miles Brewster (14) followed with a pair of catch-and-shoot 3s. But the Terriers did not score a two-point field goal until the 9:30 mark of the first half, over 10 minutes into the contest.
Trailing by seven with seven minutes to play in the first half, BU put up floaters on three straight possessions. None of them hit any piece of the rim.
The Terriers sport one of the 10 slowest offenses in the nation, per KenPom, and it showed. They found themselves in far too many late shot-clock situations and did not have the bailout shotmaking to offset slow and stagnant possessions.
BU shot 30.8 percent in the first half (8-for-26) in the first half. The Terriers entered the break trailing 29-24.
BU’s defense was excellent in the first half, then not so excellent in the second.
It is difficult to keep Bucknell from scoring. The Bison entered Wednesday’s matchup coming off of a 116-110 double-overtime loss at Army.
However, in the first half, BU held Bucknell to just one field goal over the final 10 minutes of the frame. The Bison, who started hot and took a 21-6 lead, ended the half with just 29 points on 9-for-25 shooting and 3 for 11 from 3. The Terriers were able to slow the pace with a 2-3 zone, and Bucknell seemed unable to solve it for a long stretch.
But Bucknell’s shooters came alive after halftime. The Bison made 6 of 10 3s in the second half and were 15 for 24 from the field. BU could not get stops after cutting the deficit to one point.