Men's Basketball vs. Albany (1/16/08)
by Ryan Matsuura
The first ever white-out night for the Terriers resulted in a packed Case Gymnasium, and an atmosphere at home that Terriers coach Dennis Wolff called “fabulous.” He hoped for a strong start in a must-win game between the preseason America East favorite Terriers and the runner-up Albany Great Danes, but the Great Danes reeled off the first nine points of the ball game, which the Terriers could never recover from, losing 70-63 on Wednesday night.
“You clearly can’t start a game the way we started that game and think that you’re going to win,” Wolff said. “That being said, I thought we put a lot of effort in to get back in the game.”
Part of the slow start can be attributed to the lack of execution in the half court set. In the opening minutes of the game, Albany locked up the Terriers defensively, forcing them to put up desperation outside shots with the shot clock winding down. The Terriers first four shots were errant three point attempts and at one point in first eight minutes of the game, the Terriers put up eight threes, on pace for 40 attempts.
“I don’t think we worked hard enough to get a good shot early,” said Wolff. “I think as the game went along, we ran some other sets and got the ball moving better.”
Albany focused on suffocating the Terriers’ three point shooters, especially in the first half, forcing BU to go 3-12 from beyond the arc in the first 20 minutes of the game. The Terriers were later able to spring free due to a number of Great Dane lapses, nailing 7-14 in the second half.
“We knew if we could defend the three against BU, we could be successful,” said Albany coach Will Brown. “10-for-26 isn’t very good. But they got on a roll in the second half and a couple of them were off our breakdowns. The initial reaction is to help out, but you can’t help off [their shooters].”
Brian Lillis, the 2007 America East Defensive Player of the Year, anchored the Danes on both sides of the ball. Until the Terriers started to get good looks off their secondary break, Lillis camped near the top of the key, showing on every screen and sliding down to grab a game-high 12 rebounds.
Offensively, he was even more impressive, scoring 27 points, 15 of those coming at the charity strip. Normally, a 63% foul shooter, Lillis made his first 15 before missing his last attempt when the game was already in hand. Lillis now leads the conference in scoring, averaging 22.3 points a game.
“I think Brian’s the best player in this league right now,” said Brown. “Definitely the most valuable player in this league. He’s had one sub par game in league play and that was against [the University of New Hampshire], and the whole team was flat. Other than that, he’s dominated every game he’s played in.”
For the Terriers, sophomore Corey Lowe had another strong performance, playing all 40 minutes, dropping 20 points including five threes. He also had four assists, three steals, and a monster block in the opening minutes of the first half.
“There’s a lot of pressure on Corey [Lowe],” Wolff said. “And unless we get more guys playing more confidently and stepping up to where they can get and take good shots. At some positions we are playing with no confidence and it puts pressure on Corey.”
Also contributing in the starting line-up was 6’5” freshman guard John Holland, who scored a career-high 19 points. After being pulled for taking a couple of three point attempts in the first minutes of the game, Holland started to attack the rim, forcing Albany into foul trouble. With 8 minutes left in the first half, the Terriers were already in the bonus and went 13-16 from the line, 17-21 overall. The 13 first half points from the free throw line accumulated for half of the Terriers 26 points in the frame.
The Terriers also continue to struggle from inside the three-point arc. From two-point distance, BU went 8-25, with three of those being dunks. Discounting the three throw downs by Lowe and Holland, BU shot 22.7% (5-22).
Even with the shooting difficulties, the Terriers still outscored Albany in the second half 37-36. BU now faces an uphill battle with a 1-3 conference record. They travel to New York state to face Stony Brook on Saturday, January 19 at 2 pm. The next WTBU broadcast of men’s basketball will be Tuesday, when the UMBC Retrievers come to town. Game time is set for 7 pm, with Terriers Tonight starting at 6:40.
The first ever white-out night for the Terriers resulted in a packed Case Gymnasium, and an atmosphere at home that Terriers coach Dennis Wolff called “fabulous.” He hoped for a strong start in a must-win game between the preseason America East favorite Terriers and the runner-up Albany Great Danes, but the Great Danes reeled off the first nine points of the ball game, which the Terriers could never recover from, losing 70-63 on Wednesday night.
“You clearly can’t start a game the way we started that game and think that you’re going to win,” Wolff said. “That being said, I thought we put a lot of effort in to get back in the game.”
Part of the slow start can be attributed to the lack of execution in the half court set. In the opening minutes of the game, Albany locked up the Terriers defensively, forcing them to put up desperation outside shots with the shot clock winding down. The Terriers first four shots were errant three point attempts and at one point in first eight minutes of the game, the Terriers put up eight threes, on pace for 40 attempts.
“I don’t think we worked hard enough to get a good shot early,” said Wolff. “I think as the game went along, we ran some other sets and got the ball moving better.”
Albany focused on suffocating the Terriers’ three point shooters, especially in the first half, forcing BU to go 3-12 from beyond the arc in the first 20 minutes of the game. The Terriers were later able to spring free due to a number of Great Dane lapses, nailing 7-14 in the second half.
“We knew if we could defend the three against BU, we could be successful,” said Albany coach Will Brown. “10-for-26 isn’t very good. But they got on a roll in the second half and a couple of them were off our breakdowns. The initial reaction is to help out, but you can’t help off [their shooters].”
Brian Lillis, the 2007 America East Defensive Player of the Year, anchored the Danes on both sides of the ball. Until the Terriers started to get good looks off their secondary break, Lillis camped near the top of the key, showing on every screen and sliding down to grab a game-high 12 rebounds.
Offensively, he was even more impressive, scoring 27 points, 15 of those coming at the charity strip. Normally, a 63% foul shooter, Lillis made his first 15 before missing his last attempt when the game was already in hand. Lillis now leads the conference in scoring, averaging 22.3 points a game.
“I think Brian’s the best player in this league right now,” said Brown. “Definitely the most valuable player in this league. He’s had one sub par game in league play and that was against [the University of New Hampshire], and the whole team was flat. Other than that, he’s dominated every game he’s played in.”
For the Terriers, sophomore Corey Lowe had another strong performance, playing all 40 minutes, dropping 20 points including five threes. He also had four assists, three steals, and a monster block in the opening minutes of the first half.
“There’s a lot of pressure on Corey [Lowe],” Wolff said. “And unless we get more guys playing more confidently and stepping up to where they can get and take good shots. At some positions we are playing with no confidence and it puts pressure on Corey.”
Also contributing in the starting line-up was 6’5” freshman guard John Holland, who scored a career-high 19 points. After being pulled for taking a couple of three point attempts in the first minutes of the game, Holland started to attack the rim, forcing Albany into foul trouble. With 8 minutes left in the first half, the Terriers were already in the bonus and went 13-16 from the line, 17-21 overall. The 13 first half points from the free throw line accumulated for half of the Terriers 26 points in the frame.
The Terriers also continue to struggle from inside the three-point arc. From two-point distance, BU went 8-25, with three of those being dunks. Discounting the three throw downs by Lowe and Holland, BU shot 22.7% (5-22).
Even with the shooting difficulties, the Terriers still outscored Albany in the second half 37-36. BU now faces an uphill battle with a 1-3 conference record. They travel to New York state to face Stony Brook on Saturday, January 19 at 2 pm. The next WTBU broadcast of men’s basketball will be Tuesday, when the UMBC Retrievers come to town. Game time is set for 7 pm, with Terriers Tonight starting at 6:40.
posted by Chris Aliano at
3:37 PM
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