Dec. 29, 2007

Box Score

AMHERST, Mass. - The Boston University men's basketball team nearly climbed out of a 23-point deficit but the Terriers (3-8) fell short, 70-61, at UMass (10-2) Saturday evening in the Mullins Center. Sophomore guard Carlos Strong (Portland, Maine) led the charge for BU with 14 second-half points en route to 17 for the game.

The Terriers fell victim to an rally by the Minutemen late in the first half that gave UMass as much as a 23-point lead, but Strong went 6-for-10 from the floor in the second, including two key threes to start the Terrier run.

Strong's team-best 17 points were followed by sophomore guard Corey Lowe's (Newton, Mass.) 13 points and four rebounds. Sophomore Scott Brittain (Oakville, Ont.) added nine points and 10 rebounds. Gary Forbes led three Minutemen in double figures with 25.

Despite a slow start to the second half, the Minutemen retained a double-digit lead. A pair of Matt Wolff (Walpole, Mass.) free throws started a 12-3 BU run that cut UMass's lead to 53-43 at 8:09. BU continued to tighten the screws on defense, forcing two empty Minuteman possessions as the Terriers trimmed UMass's lead to nine, 56-47, at 6:10.

BU refused to quit and clawed to within three points, 62-59, at 1:35 on a layup by Strong. But UMass's Chris Lowe hit a jumper and a pair of free throws to extend the Minutemen's lead back to seven and stave off the Terriers. BU shot 41.2 percent (14-for-34) in the second half after going just 10-for-38 (26.3 pct) in the first.

The Terriers tallied 16 assists for the game, BU's second-highest total of the season. They also out-scored the Minutemen in the paint (34-28) and in second-chance points. BU got 17 points on 14 UMass miscues.

BU's first three possessions of the contest resulted in turnovers, and the Terriers did not make a field goal as UMass took an 11-1 lead at 14:30. Red-shirt junior Ibrahim Konate (Bamako, Mali) tipped in BU's first basket off a Lowe miss at 13:13. That Konate bucket started a string of seven consecutive points to pull the Terriers within three, 11-8, at 15:35.

Brittain made a layup to get BU to within two, 13-11, but a three-point play by Forbes kicked off a 22-4 run to extend the Minutemen's advantage to 35-15 at 5:47. UMass took a 44-25 lead into halftime.

BU hopes to start 2008 with a win at Holy Cross on Wednesday, Jan. 2 at 7:30 p.m.