Coming off a pivotal win at Agganis Arena on Saturday, the Boston University men’s basketball team picked up right where it left off Wednesday night, using a solid defensive performance to defeat American University by a score of 61-53 at Bender Arena.
The victory keeps the Terriers (12-14, 8-7 Patriot League) at fourth place in Patriot League standings. The team has three games left in the season to try and improve its standing for next month’s Patriot League tournament.
The Terriers relied on superb defensive play to beat the Eagles (14-13, 7-8 Patriot League) and knock them down to fifth place in the league standings. BU held American to 18-for-53 from the field and 7-of-26 from behind the 3-point line. BU also had four blocks and three steals.
Offensively, sophomore guard Cedric Hankerson led the way for the Terriers with 14 points on 4-for-10 shooting. Junior forward Nathan Dieudonne and sophomore guard Eric Fanning chipped in with 13 and 12 points, respectively.
Dieudonne also contributed a team-high seven rebounds on the night, almost matching the 7.7 rebounds per game he averages on the year.
“I was pleased with our defensive effort,” said BU coach Joe Jones. “We’ve done a much better job as of late at defending, and I thought our guys were really focused. During our pre-game warm-ups, they were focused and ready to go. I was really happy about that. We did a really good job of that. I would rate this as one of the best defensive performances of the season.”
The Terriers certainly didn’t wait until the second half to get things going, as they held American to just 15 points in the first. The two teams went back and forth early on until a 12-3 run lit a fire under the Terriers. American was held to 24 percent shooting in the half.
In the second half, it was more of the same, as American struggled to get open shots due to the Terriers’ swarming defense. The Eagles were able to climb to within five points of BU’s lead with 9:25 to play after a lay-up by guard Pee Wee Gardner. However, BU would respond a minute later with a 3-point shot by junior guard John Papale to push the lead back to a comfortable eight points.
The game became close again with under two minutes to play when American guard Jesse Reed hit a 3-pointer to cut BU’s lead to seven with 1:31 to play. The Terriers responded by putting freshman guard Will Goff in the game to hit free throws. He ended up going 9-for-10 from the free throw line in the last minute-and-a-half of the game, preserving a win for the Terriers.
“I was pretty pleased with him and him making some big foul shots down the stretch,” Jones said about Goff. “It was great to see. I’m very happy for him.”
The Terriers now will look forward to their next game, an away matchup on Sunday with Bucknell University, who sits atop the Patriot League. With only three games left in the regular season, Jones said his team must continue to execute at a high level.
“We just got to keep trying to get better at executing,” Jones said. “We got to do a better job of that on the offensive end. We’ve had too many turnovers. We also have to continue to work defensively and just keep trying to get better in that area. Those are the two things that we got to keep working on.”
