The little things cost BU men’s basketball in road loss to Merrimack, and the Terriers can’t ignore them
Poor defense, slow starts to both halves and missed free throws were among the problems that cost BU in an otherwise encouraging performance.
NORTH ANDOVER, Mass. — Boston University men’s basketball has legitimate potential and is making progress toward reaching it, two things that were again undeniably clear at Lawler Arena on Friday night.
And look — you could easily make the claim BU should’ve won, after the Terriers’ best offensive player, sophomore Kyrone Alexander, missed both a point-blank layup and a free throw to tie the game in the final ten seconds.
The last time Alexander saw the floor before that blunder, he was dropping a career-high 26 points and carrying BU to an impressive overtime win over a formidable UAlbany team. When it mattered most against another mid-major darling on Friday, the ball was in the hands of the exact player the Terriers would’ve chosen, and he missed twice.
That’s basketball. It happens. So the big-picture outlook from the 64-61 loss to Merrimack? Pretty good.
But if we’re going to view BU as a real Patriot League contender — which we should — zooming in on the little things, the margins that can and probably will decide conference tournament games at the end of the year, is what’s truly worthwhile.
Because that’s where BU (5-6) still has a long way to go and, ultimately, why it lost on Friday.
“Some of the things that have been hindering us,” head coach Joe Jones said, “turned up again tonight.”
At the top of the list is defense. The Terriers trailed the entire first half but cut Merrimack’s lead to five early in the second half as they started to figure out the Warriors’ notorious zone defense. BU complimented that by simply collapsing at the other end, allowing an immediate 10-0 Merrimack run on a series of defensive breakdowns. Defending in the second half, specifically, is one of the two big problems Jones has continuously identified from the start of the season, and it bit BU again in North Andover.
“That’s been a huge point of contention for us,” Jones said postgame. “So, you know, disappointed. We got to keep working at it, got to try to build those habits to defend.”
Merrimack shot 50 percent from the field in the second half, a development to which Jones bemoaned: “Teams have shot 50 percent in the second half of every freaking game.”
The defense got so bad early in the stanza that Jones called for a hockey-style line change, subbing out all five of his starters at the same time when Merrimack’s lead grew to 15. The replacements, especially freshmen Azmar Abdullah (4 points, steal) and Ben Defty (10 points, block), immediately brought defensive resistance and slowly started chipping away at the lead on offense. The all-backup lineup played for almost seven uninterrupted minutes, setting the table for the starters to return and heroically work the deficit down to as low as one, with 1:41 to play.
“Those guys kind of got us going. Defensively, they did a good job of grinding it out and doing the things we talked about doing,” Jones said.
Still, BU’s defense wasn’t good enough in the end.
“We just needed a few more stops down the stretch,” Jones said. “And we couldn’t get them.”
The next issue? BU was equally poor to start the first half as it was the second. Merrimack jumped out to an 11-0 lead as the Terriers missed their first seven shots. BU’s starters needed their backups to come to the rescue then, too; junior forward Otto Landrum, in his third game back from a fractured ankle, came off the bench and scored or assisted BU’s first 10 points. He finished with a career-high seven assists and perfectly executed the Terriers’ plan for the Warriors’ famous zone defense. When the starters eventually returned, they continued what Landrum started. BU finished the game with a positive assist-turnover ratio and a respectable 46-percent shooting clip.
Problem is:
“[The starters] have to be responsible for showing the other guys. Like: ‘Alright, I’m setting the stage for you so when you get in, you can play off me,” Jones said. “We start with the starters and we’re not getting it done, and now we have to go with the bench to pick us up? That should not be the case.”
Of course, that BU fought all the way back against a strong opponent and its reserve players led the charge was, from a bird’s-eye view, an enormous positive. But the bird’s-eye view doesn’t win close games.
“They have a lot of resolve, this group. They’re not going to stop going, that’s just not who they are,” Jones said. “But we bit ourselves in the foot the way we started both halves.”
And by the way, Alexander’s missed free throw, unlucky as it was? Another small area the Terriers must improve. BU was 5 for 11 from the line and is shooting just 63 percent this season. Missed free throws were critical in a buzzer-beating loss to Wagner on Nov. 19, very nearly cost BU an overtime win over UAlbany on Saturday and made a six-point difference in a four-point loss on Friday.
“We had some opportunities to win,” Jones said. “And we just didn’t make the plays.”
BU is a strong team. Commend the Terriers for that. But with bigger aspirations comes smaller margins, and BU didn’t win any of them on Friday.
“Guys have to hold themselves accountable for the way they played individually and the way we played as a unit to start the game,” Jones said. “You can’t look over your shoulder, you have to be able to look in the mirror and know you didn’t get it done.”