DURHAM, N.C. - The No. 18/17 Boston University men's lacrosse team came up just short in its bid to knock off No. 5 Duke as the Blue Devils held on for an 11-10 win on Wednesday afternoon at a rain-soaked Koskinen Stadium.

After a 5-5 deadlock at the half, the Terriers rallied back from a 9-6 deficit late in the third. Duke took a 10-9 lead before senior Tommy Bourque drew the visitors even again with 6:14 left in regulation. The Blue Devils scored the game-winner with 2:12 to play as BU's last shot was stopped with 11 seconds left on the clock.

Graduate student Vince D'Alto had a hat trick and added an assist while classmate Louis Perfetto (2g, 1a) and junior Brenden Kelly (1g, 2a) had three points apiece. BU got two goals from graduate student Thomas Niedringhaus while Bourque had an assist before his late goal for a two-point day. Sophomore Jimmy Kohr notched his second goal of the season.

Junior Will Barnes turned aside 14 Duke shots with eight coming before halftime whlie classmate Matthew Fritz went 8-for-20 at the faceoff x. 

Lightning forced a 30-minute delay in the third quarter as the Terriers were eliminating Duke's three-goal lead.

BU moves to 6-3 on the year while Duke improves to 10-2

HOW IT HAPPENED

• BU jumped out to a 2-0 lead just over four minutes into the game with goals from Perfetto and Kohr.
• The home team erased that deficit over the next minutes before Niedringhuas buried a shot that gave the Terriers a 3-2 lead after the first quarter.
• Duke reeled off three straight tallies to open the second quarter, taking its first lead of the game in the process.
• Down 5-3, BU battled back before the break as D'Alto scored off a feed from Bourque with 6:16 to play in the opening half and then added another on a man-up chance at the 2:10 mark.
• The teams traded goals to open the second half before the Blue Devis took the largest lead of the contest at 9-6 with a trio of goals in a span of under three minutes.
• The Terriers drew even before the end of the third, however, starting with a goal by Perfetto off an assist from Kelly with 6:58 left in the quarter.
• Kelly made it 9-8 with 4:08 in the third before lightning in the area caused a weather delay that lasted for a half hour.
• Moments after play resumed, Niedringhaus added his second of the contest to create a 9-9 deadlock entering the fourth.
• Each squad's defense was strong in the final 15 and Duke went back up 6:17 into the quarter on Brennan O'Neil's third goal of the contest.
• Bourque created a 10-10 score off an unassisted tally with 6:14 remaining in regulation.
• Benn Johnston provided what would be the winner after Andrew McAdorey found him open with just over two minutes to play.
• After losing the ensuing faceoff, BU forced a shot clock violation and successfully cleared the ball before calling timeout with 24 seconds to play.
• The ball made its way to Niedringhaus near the left crease but his attempt was stopped by Duke netminder Patrick Jameison to allow Duke to seal the win.

 
GAME NOTES

• Duke held a 50-41 advantage in shots and collected 35 ground balls to BU's 23.
• Jameison made 11 saves for the Blue Devils.
• Graduate student Roy Meyer had a team-best five ground balls for the Terriers.
• Duke scored on both of its man-up chances while the Terriers were 1-for-3.
• The Blue Devils won 15 of the game's 25 faceoffs.
• Each team had three failed clears as BU was 21-for-24 and Duke was 19-of-22.

 
UP NEXT

• BU will return to action on Saturday (April 30) when it visits Holy Cross for a Patriot League contest.
• Game time in Worcester is set for 1 p.m.