Terriers Face Hostile Crowd at Dayton Tuesday Night
December 28, 2009 | Men's Basketball
Dec. 28, 2009
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BOSTON - Facing off against a conference preseason favorite for the second consecutive game, the Boston University men's basketball team will put its three-game win streak on the line at Dayton Tuesday night with action set to start at 7 p.m. Last week, the Terriers (5-6) defeated the Northeast Conference's Mount St. Mary's, but they will have a tougher challenge trying to snap a 26 home-game win streak by the Atlantic 10's Flyers (9-2).
The University of Dayton Arena is the annual host of the NCAA tournament play-in game and has averaged nearly 13,000 passionate college basketball fans in each of the Flyer's six home wins this season.
While the two teams have never played each other before, they did compete in the same tournament at the Puerto Rico Tip-Off back in November, finishing with a 1-2 record. The Terriers' lone win came against Indiana, while the Flyers knocked off Georgia Tech. Both squads fell to current-No. 12 Kansas State during the four-day event.
Having scored more than 80 points in back-to-back games against Marist (88-72) and Mount St. Mary's (86-77), the Terriers currently have the No. 1 scoring offense in the America East at 70.9 ppg. They are led by John Holland, who leads the league in scoring at 19.4 ppg. Both he and reigning AE Player of the Week Jake O'Brien tallied 21 points against the Mountaineers.
The victory marked the first time since the 1996-97 season that BU tallied more than 80 points against two consecutive non-conference teams. Senior Corey Lowe scored 13 points in the game and is now only 19 shy of becoming the sixth Terrier in the 101 seasons of the program's history to reach 1,500 in a career. He has a 14.9 ppg and 5.2 assist per game average. Tyler Morris is the other scorer in double figures at 11.5 ppg.
Defensively, the Terriers feature the worst scoring defense in the conference at 74.5 ppg but are fifth in scoring margin at -3.5 ppg. The past three games, they've held opponents to a combined 39.8 shooting percentage, while hitting 56 percent or better in the last two contests. Three BU men rank in the top 10 in the league for rebounding with O'Brien fifth at 6.5 rpg. Holland is ninth at 6.0 rpg, and Strong is 10th at 5.9 rpg. O'Brien is also second in blocks at 1.6 bpg, while Holland averages 2.0 steals per game for second.
The Terriers had a 20-rebound edge against Indiana for a 71-67 victory and may need a similar performance to knock off a Flyer squad that returns four starters from last season's 27-9 team that advanced to the second round of the NCAAs. Led by Naismith and Wooden Award watch list member Chris Wright, Dayton is averaging 70.1 ppg and has a 2.8 positive rebounding margin (35.1-32.8) against opponents.
Since suffering two losses at Puerto Rico, the Flyers have earned victories over George Mason, Old Dominion and Appalachian State during a seven-game win streak after starting the year with wins against Creighton and Georgia Tech. The 6-8 junior forward Wright leads Dayton in both scoring and rebounding at 14.5 ppg and 6.8 rpg, respectively, while 6-6 guard Chris Johnson averages 12.1 ppg and 6.2 rpg.
Following the game, the Terriers return home and start the conference schedule on Saturday, Jan. 2, at Case Gym with Stony Brook. They still have one non-conference game remaining as a result of being part of the Bracketbusters.
