Boston University
1-2
#1 Kentucky
4-0
No. 1 Kentucky Pulls Away Late from BU, 89-65
November 21, 2014 | Men's Basketball
Box Score | USATSI Photo Gallery 
| Photo Gallery (Timothy Sofranko)
Watch Highlights | Watch Replay (ESPN3)
LEXINGTON, Ky. - Highlighted by sophomore Cedric Hankerson's career-high 24 points, the Boston University men's basketball team battled top-ranked Kentucky to the final minutes in a hard-fought 89-65 loss at the famed Rupp Arena in front of 22,485 fans on Friday night.
The eight-time national champion and 2014 runner-up Wildcats (4-0) led 66-57 with 8:29 left in regulation and scored nine straight points over the following two minutes to pull away from the Terriers (1-2). BU was making its first visit to Rupp Arena since 2010 and was playing the nation's No. 1 squad in a regular season match-up for the first time since the 2005 season opener at Duke.
Draining five 3-pointers and finishing 7-of-15 from the field, Hankerson was one of four Terriers in double figures. Freshman Cheddi Mosely contributed 13 points and three steals, while sophomore Eric Fanning posted a season-high 12 points. Playing in front of friends and family at Rupp Arena for the first time since winning a high school state title in 2012, junior and former Kentucky Mr. Basketball Nathan Dieudonne posted 10 points, five rebounds and four assists.
Kentucky allowed a season-worst 65 points and only out-rebounded the Terriers by five (30-25) after entering the game with a +18.0 margin. The Wildcats however shot 57.6 percent from the field and matched the Terriers with four men in double figures. Aaron Harrison tallied 19 points, while Devin Booker contributed 15 points, including 12 in the second, and seven assists off the bench. Willie Cauley-Stein and Dakari Johnson added 12 and 11 points, respectively.
UK jumped out to a 12-4 lead behind a pair of 3-pointers and extended the lead to 16-7 on a steal and fastbreak dunk, which prompted a timeout at 13:06. On the ensuing possession, the Terriers beat the press with junior John Papale finding Dieudonne for an easy dunk. Dieudonne led the chanrge on the 9-0 BU spurt by following up with a block that led to Hankerson's first 3-pointer. He then dished out back-to-back assists on baskets by Fanning and junior Justin Alston, respectively, to tie the game at 16-16 with 10:45 remaining in the half.
The Wildcats reeled off 10 straight points over the next three minutes and maintained the 10-point advantage (33-23) at 3:57. BU chipped away at the deficit and ended the half on a 3-point bomb by Fanning to enter the locker room trailing by just five, 40-35.
In the second, Mosely fed Hankerson for another trey to pull the Terriers within two, 46-44, at 16:20 with both teams playing an up-tempo style. The next three minutes grinded to a halt though with the referees calling a combined 11 fouls, including nine against BU. UK took advantage by scoring six straight points at the charity stripe during that stretch and then pushed the lead to double digits (54-44) on Cauley-Stein's dunk at 13:36 after Hankerson missed a 3-point attempt.
BU cut the deficit to eight at 13:14 (54-46) and 11:54 (56-48), respectively, and found itself down, 66-57, with 8:29 remaining in regulation after Hankerson's fifth and final 3-pointer. The Wildcats clamped down defensively by forcing two turnovers and a contested 3-point shot to ignite a 9-0 run. The Terriers never recovered and fell to 0-4 all-time against UK.
The Wildcats claimed the victory by outscoring the Terriers in the paint (44-16) and in points off turnovers (28-13), while also owning a 39-12 advantage in points off the bench. They tallied nine blocks with nine steals and went 34-of-59 (.576), including 8-of-21 (.381) from behind the arc.
BU kept the game close for much of the contest by forcing 13 UK turnovers and becoming the first opponent this season to shoot over 35 percent. The Terriers finished 20-of-52 (.385) from the field, including 9-of-24 (.375) in 3-point territory, and shot an impressive 16-of-18 (.889) at the line.
The Terriers will next conclude the season-opening four-game road trip at longtime regional rival and former America East foe New Hampshire on Tuesday, Nov. 25. Tip-off is slated for 7 p.m.
Boston University Postgame Press Conference Quotes
Head Coach Joe Jones
On the zone and how effective it was
"I think it was one of those things that, when you go into a game like this and they are so long and deep, that they are going to get comfortable and then you are going to make some adjustments. I thought they did a great job in the second half. They got three lob dunks and they could throw it in each time down the floor inside to Towns. He used his size and strength and scored. I knew at some point they were going to be able to figure it out. Then we were going to make adjustments and you only have so many tricks up your sleeve to keep you in it when you are playing a team this good. "
On Devin Booker's career high performance in points, rebounds and assists
"He is terrific player. The thing is this: They have so many guys that are so good, one of them is going to get hot. Nate's description of their team is dead on. The hardest thing to do is when you have so many players you have to get them to play as a team. Even though it was a close game, they were playing as a team. You can win big playing that way. You can't look at the score and say that BU hung around and it was a five-point game at halftime. Those guys played as a unit the whole time. That is the reason why they were able to break it open and all the credit goes to them. My hat goes off to Coach Cal, and that is not an easy thing to do."
On the last 10 minutes of the game
"There was nothing that we didn't do. I thought it was more on the defensive end than on the offensive end. We did not come up with any stops. If you watch the first half, we were able to create enough stops to get points in transition. We are a terrific 3-point shooting team. We have a lot of guys that can shoot them. In the second half, we just didn't come up with enough stops. They were able to pick apart the zone. Then they got into that press and we didn't attack the press well enough. We couldn't generate shots that way in the half court. They weren't going to let us run anything. We had to drive the ball to score. If they stepped up we would have to kick it. That is not the way we want to play in terms of one on one, but we really didn't have any chance to run anything. They are too big and long. We have never seen that type of pressure before. I feel like that if we had gotten some stops we could have kept it close."
On hitting the three over taller players
"We have a good basketball team. We lost a lot from last year. Here is a team that won 24 games last year. It was one away from the school record and were regular-season champs. We lost five out of our seven top guys. We bring back four guys that played minutes and two starters. We have a pretty talented team and trying to figure ourselves out right now. I think we are more talented than we thought and a little bit better than we thought. I like our future. This is a game I think we are going to be able to look back on and see that we never quit. We didn't bow our heads and kept going after them. We just played against a better basketball game tonight."
