Men's Basketball vs. Saint Joseph's (11/17/07)

by James Sherrill

Once again the Terriers got off to a hot start against an Atlantic 10 team and once again they fizzled out over the rest of the game and lost.

This time the Terriers jumped out to a 13-6 lead in the first 10 minutes against Saint Joseph’s, but struggled to find a rhythm for the rest of the game, and fell to the Hawks 57-48 at Agganis Arena on Saturday night.

“Any time your on the road, you want to deliver the first blow and we didn’t tonight,” said St. Joe’s head coach Phil Martelli. “It took us probably 12 minutes to really get going.”

After a slow start caused by characteristic tough defense by the Terriers, St. Joe’s woke up near the end of the half, outscoring BU 11-3 over the final 5:12 after a Pat Calathes free throw.

“At the beginning of the game I thought they had a lot of [defensive] activity,” said Martelli. “They had active hands, but it was a matter of us turning the ball over.”

St Joe’s didn’t miss a step during the intermission. After a Tasheed Carr 3-pointer and a Rob Ferguson lay-up in the first minute the Hawks extended their lead to 10 points and didn’t look back.

The Hawks aggressive defense gave BU problems all game long, forcing them into shooting 1-12 as a team from beyond the arc. The Terriers’ leading scorer this season, Corey Lowe, was 0-5 in three-point land.

“We seemed to be shooting ourselves in the foot on offense,” said head coach Dennis Wolff. “Because they’re good and they’re big and they’re active defenders, they put us in some positions that we have to work on making better decisions in.”

The Terriers also tied their season high with 20 turnovers as a team. “Six or seven of those were of the ridiculous variety,” said Wolff.

Scott Brittain was the only bright spot for the Terriers offense. He tallied a team high 14 points, on 5-6 shooting, and added a team high 9 rebounds. The rest of the Terriers went a combined 14-45(31.1%) from the floor, as no other Terrier made it into double figures.

“[Scott Brittain] was more aggressive ducking and he was on the boards more, which got him into position to get offensive rebounds,” said Wolff.

The Terriers struggles stopping their opponents big men continued as 6-foot-9-inch junior Ahmad Nivins scored a game high 18 points and grabbed a game high 13 rebounds. Sophomore Darrin Govens added 15 points and made a game-high six three-pointers.

After falling behind 13-6, the Hawks used 8 points from Ahmed Nivins over the final 11:07 of the half to build a 25-20 lead at the break. The Hawks scored the first five points after the break to take a 10 point lead.

Darrin Govens caught fire after the break scoring 13 of his 15 points as St. Joe’s extended the lead to a game-high 16 points on a Govins three-pointer. The Terriers fought back over the next 9:04 to get the lead to nine but never seriously threatened the Hawks.

Despite their size advantage, the Hawks were out-rebounded 35-33. The Terriers had a 14-12 advantage on the offensive glass.

Carlos Strong struggled throughout the game, scoring only 4 points on 1-5 shooting from the floor. “Right now he is fighting himself too much,” said Wolff, “He has to find a way to let the game come to him.”

Once again the Terriers played without sophomore guard Tyler Morris and junior forward Ibrahim Konate. “I think when the two kids come back from injury,” said Martelli. “I don’t see any reason why that’s not a tournament level team.”

St Joe’s improved to 6-0 all-time against BU, including 3 wins in the past two seasons.

St. Joes hosts Ball State on the 27^th. The Terriers return to action at Case Gymnasium on Monday night at 8 p.m. against Northeastern. Pre-game coverage starts at 7:40, on WTBU.