The Quinnipiac men’s basketball team fell to the Boston University Terriers at the TD Bank Sports Center by a final score of 69-66 on Monday. The Terriers clinched the victory after D.J. Irving hit a 3-pointer with just 2.5 seconds remaining.
“It’s obviously a disappointing loss,” head coach Tom Moore said. “I thought we played well enough all game, against a really good team. I just never felt like we got our defensive identity.”
Boston University’s guard D.J. Irving led the way for the Terriers tallying an impressive 22 points, 15 of which came in the second half. Quinnipiac’s Ike Azotam (Boston, Mass.) led the way for the Bobcats with a 14-point and 15-rebound performance. The Bobcats also had two other players with double-doubles. Ousmane Drame (Boston, Mass.) had 16 points and 11 rebounds while Zaid Hearst (Bethesda, Md.) had 10 points and 10 rebounds.
“They are strong, physical hard to keep off the glass,” Moore said about the three players. “But they have got to play better defense.”
The Bobcats led for much of the first half, but the Terriers stayed within striking distance in large part to a spark off the bench provided by Maurice Watson Jr. who contributed 13 points and four assists in 15 minutes. Umar Shannon (Atlantic City, N.J.) led the charge for the Bobcats in the first half scoring 12 of his 15 in the first 20 minutes of play. The Bobcats went on an early 8-2 run to open the game, before a 13-7 run for the Terriers tied the game at 15 with 10 minutes remaining in the half. For the rest of the half the two teams would go back and forth before Azotam and Drame each hit layups putting the Bobcats up 36-32 at the half.
Drame and Azotam picked up where they left off after a strong first half. The two Bobcat bigs netted 19 of 30 points for the team in the second half. They also collected 13 of the 25 Bobcat rebounds in the second half. With 18 minutes to go, Drame hit a layup, got fouled and made the free throw to put the Bobcats up 41-34, but the Terriers would not go away. They went on a 9-0 run which put the Terriers up 43-41 with just less than 16 minutes to go.
The game went back and forth again for much of the remainder of the game. After Azotam missed an opportunity to convert on a one and one, Irving hit a transition three for the Terriers putting them up 60-56 with 5:30 remaining, and the Bobcats could not regain the lead.
D.J. Irving hit a last second 3-pointer with the game tied at 66 putting the Terriers up by three with 2.5 seconds to go, propelling the Terriers to victory. Irving had a little bit of space between him and Bobcats defender Shaq Shannon (Philadelphia, Pa.) and made the clutch shot.
“If there is eight seconds then in my opinion [Shannon] is in a good position because he still has to play the ball screen and the drive,” Moore said. “Once it gets to five he’s got to realize that a little bit more and challenge it.”
The Terriers improved to 6-2 on the season while the Bobcats dropped to 4-2 with the loss. The Bobcats are back in action on Friday, Dec. 6 when they host Fairfield at the TD Bank Sports Center to open up conference play for their first ever MAAC game.
