Men's Basketball Resumes Action at URI on Friday
December 21, 2006 | Men's Basketball
For the fifth time this season, and the second in a row, the Terriers will face an Atlantic-10 opponent in URI. The Terriers scheduled games against George Washingon (Nov. 10), St. Joseph's (Nov. 27), St. Bonaventure (Dec. 2) and UMass (Dec. 6) and have gone 1-3 against A-10 foes, defeating only the Bonnies, 74-46, in the Reilly Center.
BU was close to pulling out a victory against UMass on Dec. 6. Freshman Corey Lowe (Newton, Mass.) led the charge for BU with 16 points and a career-high seven rebounds. Senior co-captain Brian Macon (Boynton Beach, Fla.) was second on the team in scoring, with 13 points and three steals. Rashaun Freeman posted a double-double for UMass, with a game-high 20 points along with 12 rebounds.
The two teams traded leads for much of a grinding first half, each side relying on tight defense and patient offensive possessions. UMass had a 27-24 lead at the half after going on a nine-point run near the end of the first frame. The Minutemen used a 13-6 rally at the start of the second half to move out to their 12-point leads, but the Terriers chipped away for the rest of the game, cutting the UMass edge to two points with 58 seconds left. A Tyler Morris (Indianapolis, Ind.) three with four seconds left was negated by a called BU time out.
The last time out against URI, the Rams took a 48-38 victory in Boston on Nov. 29, 2005. BU started out cold (shooting just 28 percent (14-for-50) for the game) and didn't make a basket until 14:32 in the first half. Shaun Wynn's three got BU on the board and, despite th opening drought, the Terriers trailed just 4-3. Down 7-3, BU fought back with a pair of Ibrahim Konate (Bamako, Mali) dunks to know the game at 7-7. Rhode Island proceeded to go on a 9-0 run, as BU could not score in the next four minutes, missing four shots along the way. Konate ended the slump with another jam to cut the deficit to 16-9 with 7:24 left in the half, but the Terriers would score just one more basket the rest of the period and trailed 26-14 at the half.
BU drilled a three to bring BU to within 11, 28-17. Rhode Island went on a 10-3 spurt to stretch the lead to 18, 38-20, as the Rams got hoops from Jamaal Wise, Will Daniels and Darrell Harris. The Terriers whittled the deficit back to eight, 42-34, with a 14-4 run with 6:55 remaining, however, as Omari Peterkin and Kevin Gardner combined to score ten of the points. BU would get as close as seven, 45-38, on a pair of Wynn free throws with 2:01 remaining, but Harris and Daniels hit 3-of-4 free throws down the stretch to salt away the win for URI.
Friday's road game will be the Terriers' sixth in eight games so far this season. BU will have two more games away from home when the Terriers play in the Aeropostale Holiday Festival on Dec. 28-29. BU's eight road games in the team's first ten contests are the most since the Terriers played their first ten games away from BU during the 1996-97 season. That year BU did not have a home game until Jan. 4.
The contest will also mark the end to the Terriers' longest holiday break since the 1988-89 season, when BU took 18 days off.
Following the URI game, BU will have four days off for the holidays before traveling to New York City for the Aeropostale Holiday Festival from Dec. 28-29 where the Terriers will face defending champion St. John's on the 27th at 8:30 p.m. and then either Hofstra or St. Joseph's on the 28th.
