Jan. 16, 2008

Box Score

BOSTON - The Boston University men's basketball team fell into a 17-point deficit and nearly climbed all the way back before falling, 70-63, to Albany on Wednesday night in Case Gymnasium. The Terriers drop to 4-12 overall and 1-3 in the America East while Albany improves to 8-9 and 3-2 in the league.

BU fell into an early hole, missing its first five shots. The Terriers played catch-up for most of the first half but gathered momentum at the end of the frame. BU hung tough with UA and won the second-period battle but ultimately fell short.

Sophomore guard Corey Lowe (Newton, Mass.) led the Terriers with 20 points to earn BU's America East Player of the Game honors. Freshman guard/forward John Holland (Bronx, N.Y.) turned in a career-high 19 points on 6-for-14 shooting. Albany's Brian Lillis had a double-double of 27 points and 12 rebounds to receive UA's AE Player of the Game award.

"We didn't get a lot of good shots early," noted head coach Dennis Wolff. "We moved around better in the second half and got the shots. I thought Corey and John played well today, but we need to rebound better as a team. You can't get out-rebounded by the margin we did and expect to win."

The Great Danes out-rebounded BU 6-0 in the opening minutes as they built a 9-0 lead. BU scored its first basket, a tough layup in traffic by Holland, at 15:27. Albany took its 17-point advantage with 2:19 left before the break, 33-16, but the Terriers kept scrapping, and a Lowe three followed by a pair of Lowe free throws with less than a second remaining sent BU into the half down eight, 34-26.

The guard continued his personal run to start the second half, making the fourth of his five treys at 19:42. BU began raining 3-pointers after that and went 7-for-14 from deep for the second period. Red-shirt sophomore Tyler Morris's (Indianapolis, Ind.) triple trimmed UA's edge to four, 36-32 at 17:58, and sophomore Valdas Sirutis' (Gargzdai, Lithuania) wide-open 3-pointer edged BU to within one, 38-37, with 15:28. But Albany's Jon Iati answered with a long-ball of his own to keep the Great Danes just out in front of the Terriers.

BU nipped at Albany the rest of the way but could get no closer than four points, 67-63, after another Morris three with just 35 seconds to play. The Great Danes went 3-for-4 from the line to close out the win.

UA shot 54.5 pct. (24-for-44) for the game, making 5-of-9 3-pointers (55.6 pct.) and out-rebounded BU, 38-20.

The Terriers return to action on Saturday, Jan. 19 when they play Stony Brook in New York at 2 p.m.