Boston Herald - Dieudonne right in stride with BU

BOSTON - In an early battle for first in the Patriot League standings, the defending regular season champion Boston University men's basketball team will visit Colgate Wednesday night with action slated for 7 p.m. Both squads are coming off heartbreaking losses this past Saturday and sit in a tie for first at 3-1 with Navy.

The Terriers (7-8) fell on a layup to Lafayette, 63-62, with 2.1 seconds remaining, while the Raiders (6-11) came up just short in a 71-69 double overtime defeat at defending PL champion American.

BU and Colgate will meet for just the third time since the Raiders departed the North Atlantic Conference (now the America East) in 1990. The Terriers joined the Patriot League in the summer of 2013 to rejoin the Raiders.

TERRIER TIDBITS

• BU returns 28 points from last year's 76-74 win at Colgate, while the Raiders have 38 points back ... Down 69-68 at 3:03, junior John Papale gave BU the lead for good with a 3-pointer ... Added a critical jumper before the buzzer sounded for a four-point lead with 28 seconds left.

• The one-point defeat to Lafayette comes a season after the Terriers went a perfect 3-0 in one-point games ... Marked most one-point wins in a season.

• The Terriers average nine more free throw attempts per game than Colgate ... During the recent four-game win streak, BU was averaging 24 trips to the line each game ... Only managed 11 trips in the loss to the Leopards.

• BU has won eight straight PL road victories with the last loss occurring at American on Jan. 22, 2014 ... Already have wins this year at Holy Cross (75-72 OT) and Navy (70-64).

• Sophomore Cedric Hankerson ranks second in the PL in scoring at 18.8 ppg and owns 20+ point performances this season ... Junior Nathan Dieudonne ranks second in the PL in rebounding at 7.7 rpg while also averaging 9.3 ppg.

• Over the last five games, junior Justin Alston is averaging 9.4 ppg, 8.8 rpg and 2.4 bpg ... Tallied a career-high 12 rebounds and four blocks against Lafayette on Saturday.

• Freshman Cheddi Mosely (7.2 ppg) reached double figures for the fifth time this season with 13 points against Lafayette.

• BU ranks 21st nationally in made 3-pointers at 8.6 per game ... Papale owns 167 career treys and needs three more to reach the top 10 in the Terrier record book ... Hankerson is shooting 44.7 percent from behind the arc, currently second best mark in the PL.

• In PL action, BU is shooting 47.7 percent, four points better than the 43.4 overall shooting percentage.

SCOUTING COLGATE

• The Raiders opened the season 1-7 and have gone 5-4 since ... Opened the PL with wins over Lehigh (68-61), Bucknell (68-62) and Holy Cross (74-60) before the loss to American.

• Nine of Colgate's 11 defeats have been by seven points or less, including a 57-52 defeat at La Salle

• Shared two non-conference opponents with the Terriers ... Defeated Binghamton, 65-44, after the Bearcats fell at BU, 77-65 ... Both fell at New Hampshire ... Wildcats beat BU, 75-68, on Nov. 25 and then Colgate, 63-57 on Dec. 14.

• Colgate averages 63.9 ppg while shooting 46.1 percent ... Hits 8.1 3-pointers per game.

• 6-foot-5 guard Damon Sherman-Newsome scored a career-high 30 points in the win over Holy Cross and is averaging a team-high 15.4 ppg this season.

• 6-foot-11 center Ethan Jacobs averaged 12.3 ppg and 5.2 rpg while 6-foot-4 guard Luke Roh averages a team-high 6.1 rpg with 8.3 ppg ... 6-foot-0 guard Austin Tillotson is the other Raider in double-figure scoring at 11.2 ppg with a team-high 4.8 apg.

SERIES HISTORY

• Terriers lead the all-time series, 24-19, and have won the last 20 games with the last loss occurring at Colgate in 1976.

• BU and Colgate (along with fellow PL member Holy Cross) helped form the America East in 1979 ... The Terriers won all of the AE contests against the Raiders, including the 1990 semifinal matchup.

UP NEXT

• The Terriers remain on the road with a visit to Loyola Maryland on Sunday (Jan. 18) at 1 p.m.

• Both teams are second-year members of the Patriot League ... BU swept the series last season after dropping a 2013 CollegeInsider.com Postseason Tournament first round matchup in Baltimore.