BOSTON – After honoring four seniors, the Boston University men's basketball team will face Navy at Case Gym on Saturday with the CBS Sports Network broadcast slated for a 12 p.m. start time.
With three contests remaining, the matchup is a big one in terms of helping determine Patriot League seeding. Both Navy and Colgate are tied for second at 9-6 with the Terriers and Lehigh tied-for-fourth at 8-7. Holy Cross (7-8) is in sixth and three are other teams, including future BU opponents Lafayette and
TERRIER TIDBITS
- BU will recognize Will Goff, Cedric Hankerson, Nick Havener and Eric Johnson prior to the tip.
- Goff currently ranks sixth all-time at BU in career 3FG% (.421) ... In one of his impressive highlights this season, he hit five 3-pointers on just seven attempts en route to a career-high 17 points in a thrilling win at defending PL champion Bucknell.
- Hankerson (13.6 ppg, 1.5 spg) ranks fourth all-time at BU with 224 career 3-pointers, tied-for-fourth with 171 steals and 16th in points (1,249) ... This season he went 10-of-14, including 5-of-8 3FG, for 33 points in the 90-82 PL home opening win against Army.
- Havener (7.6 ppg, 4.0 rpg) owns 551 career points and just needs 21 rebounds to reach 500 boards ... He has six career double-doubles, including a 16-point, 10-rebound performance at UConn.
- Johnson has made at least two starts in each of his season and totaled 1553 career assists against 87 turnovers for a 1.7 assist-turnover ratio and shoots 38.6 percent from behind the arc ... This season he dished out a season-high seven assists at Lehigh and hit the go-ahead 3-pointer in a thrilling 90-87 win at Bethune-Cookman.
- The Terriers are 4-3 at home this season against conference opponents, posting three straight wins over Army, Lehigh (92-81), Colgate (72-58) before losing three of the last four.
- Sophomore Max Mahoney (12.9 ppg, 5.1 rpg) posted a game-high 25 points with a team-high eight rebounds at American on Wednesday and has reached 20+ points five times this season.
- Sophomore Tyler Scanlon (10.7 ppg, 5.7 rpg, 2.8 apg) had nine points, seven rebounds and five assists against the Eagles as well.
- As a team, BU is averaging 71.1 FG% and 46.3 FG% (2nd-best in the PL) while holding opponents to 71.8 ppg and 45.0 FG%.
SCOUTING NAVY
- The Midshipmen are 10-5 away from home this season and have won their last five road contests in conference action with victories at Army (68-59), Holy Cross (69-34), American (61-44), Lehigh (77-75) and Lafayette (75-72) ... In total Navy has won five of the last six games with the lone loss coming at home to Colgate (69-64).
- Preseason All-PL member Shawn Anderson leads Navy in scoring at 13.7 ppg while also averaging 5.4 rpg and 3.3 apg ... He's one of two Mids averaging double figures alongside Bryce Dulin (10.8 ppg) with Hasan Abdullah (9.5 ppg) and George Kiernan (9.3 ppg) in striking distance.
- Tom Lacey (8.9 ppg) leads Navy in rebounding at 6.6 rpg to help Navy rank t-26th nationally in rebounding margin (+6.1 rpg), while Abdullah is averaging a team-high 3.7 assists and 2.2 steals per game.
- Navy leads the PL and ranks 39th nationally in scoring defense at 66.3 ppg ... The Mids have not allowed more than 70 points in five straight games ... BU is 2-9 this season when held below 70 points with the lone wins occurring at Holy Cross (54-40) and at home against Loyola Maryland (64-55).
SERIES NOTES
- BU leads the all-time series, 9-2, after the road team has won each of the last five meetings … BU won the first-ever contest between the two schools in the 1959 NCAA Sweet 16 in Charlotte, North Carolina.
- Clinging to a 52-51 lead with 7:06 left in regulation at Navy, freshman Javante McCoy hit a 3-pointer en route to season-high 16 points ... Navy pulled within four (60-56) at 4:08 on George Kiernan's fourth 3FG, but Goff flushed one in response at 3:15 to keep Navy at a distance ... BU went 12-of-14 from the charity stripe in the final 91 seconds to seal the 75-68 victory ... The Terriers shot 55.6 FG% and held the Midshipmen to 41.9 FG%.
- In the last meeting at BU, the Terriers missed a 3-pointer up 34-32 with eight seconds left in the half ... Navy drew a flagrant on the fastbreak opportunity and took the lead for good with two free throws and a 3-pointer ... Navy led by as many as 13 at 10:27 (56-43) with the Terriers cutting the deficit to six at 4:13 and 1:18, respectively ... BU shot 30.4 FG% in the 2nd half ... Bryce Dulin was one of four Mids in double figures at 19 points for the 70-61 win.
