Terriers Travel to UMass Saturday
December 28, 2007 | Men's Basketball
Dec. 28, 2007
Game Notes | Gametracker | Listen Live
BOSTON - Looking to give head coach Dennis Wolff his 250th career win, the Boston University men's basketball team heads to Amherst, Mass. to play UMass on Saturday, Dec. 28. The Minutemen (9-2) lead the all-time series 40-29 and Wolff's Terriers (3-7) have an 0-5 record against them.
The teams began the rivalry with a 36-16 UMass win on Jan. 25, 1904. They began contesting the series annually in 1937 until 1981. The Terriers' longest win streak began in the 1939 season and lasted through 1947-48 - a string of 10 consecutive wins. UMass has won the last nine games against the BU dating back to 1989 and leads the all-time series 40-29.
The Minutemen are looking for their best start since the 1995-96 season when UMass went to the Final Four. This is the second year in a row the Minutemen have started 9-2. UMass is led by Gary Forbes' 20.5 points and 7.5 rebounds per game. Three other Minutemen average double figures - Ricky Harris (19.5 ppg), Etienne Brower (11.4 ppg) and Chris Lowe (11.1 ppg).
Sophomore guard Corey Lowe (Newton, Mass.) is BU's leading scorer with 19.1 points per game. Classmates Carlos Strong (Portland, Maine) and Scott Brittain (Oakville, Ont.) are the other two Terriers in double figures. Strong averages 13.8 ppg, while Brittain averages 10.6 ppg and a team-best 5.8 rpg. He is shooting 58.0 percent from the floor (40-for-69) to rank third in the America East.
BU is coming off a 73-55 loss to Delaware in Newark last Saturday. The Terriers fell into a hole after a Blue Hen run that spanned the end of the first half and the start of the second and could not recover. Lowe led BU with 13 points followed by Brittain's 11 points. Red-shirt sophomore Tyler Morris (Indianapolis, Ind.) played his first minutes this season and put up six points and grabbed three rebounds. In the last meeting with UMass, the Minutemen squeaked out a 56-54 win in Agganis Arena on Dec. 6, 2006. The Terriers had a game-winning and heavily guarded 3-pointer by Morris negated after a timeout was called a split second before the shot went up.
Boston University closes out the non-conference portion of the season with a road contest against Holy Cross on Wednesday, Jan. 2 at 7:30 p.m.
