Jan. 25, 2014

Box Score | Coach Jones' Postgame Comments

LEWISBURG, Pa. - Playing its third Patriot League game in six days, the Boston University men's basketball team featured five Terriers in double figures and forced 13 turnovers to earn a 64-61 victory at Bucknell on Saturday afternoon.

With its third win on the CBS Sports Network this month, BU improves to 14-7 (7-1 PL) and snaps a two-game losing streak to the Bison (9-10, 4-4 PL).

Sophomore Maurice Watson Jr. led the Terriers with 12 points, a season-high eight rebounds, five assists and the steal that sealed the win. Senior Dom Morris recorded 12 points and a team-high eight nine rebounds to move into 15th place all-time at BU with 661 career boards. Sophomore John Papale (12 pts.), senior D.J. Irving (10 pts.) and senior Travis Robinson (10 pts.) were the other three in double figure scoring, as the Terriers finished 22-of-59 (.373) from the field.

Bucknell shot 6-of-24 (.250) in the first half for 16 points but hit seven 3-pointers and 12 free throws in the second to challenge the Terriers to the final seconds of the contest. Cameron Ayers recorded 23 points and eight rebounds, while Brian Fitzpatrick had the lone double-double with 10 points and 11 rebounds. Averaging 15.7 ppg in Patriot League play, Chris Hass scored all of his 17 points behind four treys in the final 7:22.

Leading 59-58 with 19 seconds left after a Hass 3-pointer, Papale hit two free throws to push BU's lead back to three. Hass tried to get into position for another trey, but Watson plucked the ball away and raced across the court for the fastbreak layup with seven seconds remaining.

The steal proved to be critical, as Hass came right back with his fourth 3-pointer. The Terriers in-bounded the ball to Papale, who went 1-of-2 at the charity stripe at 1.4 seconds. Bucknell tried a desperate heave under its basket toward mid-court to set up a game-tying basket, but BU's defenders were in position to intercept the pass and hold on for the win.

The Terriers never trailed in the contest, opening on an Irving 3-pointer. Freshman Cedric Hankerson's deep basket extended the lead to 19-6 at 8:24. Irving finished the half with another trey just before the buzzer sounded to give BU the 32-16 advantage.

Trailing 35-18 at 17:58, the Bison scored 10 straight points over the next four minutes with Ayers capping the spurt on back-to-back 3-pointers. The Terriers missed a field goal attempt on the next possession, but Watson got the offensive rebound and put back to ignite a 15-2 run.

Papale earned a steal and quickly sent the ball to Irving, who fed it back to Papale in the paint for the fastbreak layup and 50-30 lead at 8:11. Irving maintained BU's largest lead of the game at 20 (52-32) with 7:22 remaining.  

Hass then began mounting Bucknell's rally, hitting his first field goal and 3-pointer on the next possession. Robinson tried to stop the Bison comeback with his third 3-point basket at 5:08 for the 56-41 lead.

Feeding off the fans in a packed Sojka Pavilion, Bucknell scored nine straight points with Ryan Hill hitting a layup at 1:28. After Watson hit 1-of-2 free throws, Ayers cut the deficit to four (57-53) on a deep 3-pointer with 41 seconds left.

The Bison quickly fouled Papale, who followed up with two made free throws. Unfortunately, quickly following his second made attempt, Morris was called with a technical foul while he tried to get into position for the potential rebound.

Ayers swished both free throws, and Hass drained the 3-pointer to pull Bucknell within one (59-58) at 19 seconds. Following the Bison's timeout, Papale was fouled before the ball was in-bounded. With the fans yelling, he again nailed both free throws, setting up Watson's steal and game-sealing layup.

BU finished the game 22-of-59 (.373) from the field and 13-of-22 (.591) at the charity stripe, while the Bison went 19-of-57 (.333) and 15-of-23 (.652), respectively. The Terriers won the battle at the boards, 43-40, and posted a 24-18 advantage in points in the paint.

With the victory, the Terriers even the all-time series at 3-3 and remain one game behind American (8-0 PL) in the Patriot League standings. The Eagles topped Army (6-2), 84-74, earlier in the day.

The Black Knights will make their first visit to BU since 1994 on Wednesday (Jan. 29). Tip-off is slated for 7 p.m. at Agganis Arena.