{"id":500214,"date":"2026-02-24T04:23:11","date_gmt":"2026-02-24T04:23:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/500214\/"},"modified":"2026-02-24T04:23:11","modified_gmt":"2026-02-24T04:23:11","slug":"mens-basketball-offense-falters-down-the-stretch-in-70-67-loss-to-lehigh-the-daily-free-press","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/500214\/","title":{"rendered":"Men\u2019s basketball offense falters down the stretch in 70-67 loss to Lehigh \u2013 The Daily Free Press"},"content":{"rendered":"

Midway through the second half, Boston University seemed poised to extend its win streak to six after hitting 13 of its first 15 shots in the half and opening up a 13-point lead over Lehigh University, its largest of the game.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"Freshman guard Chance Gladden (2) directs play on a Terrier possession of the ball during a matchup against the Bucknell Bisons on Feb 14. Unable to finish out the game and maintain their lead, BU men\u2019s basketball ended their five-game win-streak against the Lehigh Mountain Hawks with a 70-67 loss. (JENNY CHEN<\/a>)<\/p>\n

Then the Mountain Hawks (13-16, 9-7 Patriot League) adjusted their defense, switching to a mix of man and zone that forced the Terriers (13-16, 8-8 PL) guards off the 3-point line and slowed the fast-paced BU offense to a crawl.\u00a0<\/p>\n

As the Terriers offense stalled, Lehigh went on a 20-8 run in the final eight minutes of the game, capped off by a spinning layup from junior guard Nasir Whitlock with eight seconds remaining \u2014 extending Lehigh\u2019s lead to three.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Despite the blown lead, the Terriers still had a chance to tie the game in the dying seconds when junior guard Michael McNair was fouled attempting a game-tying three. With four seconds to go, McNair missed the second of three free throws needed to tie the game, and Whitlock\u2019s ensuing free throws gave the Mountain Hawks a 70-67 win, ending BU\u2019s five-game winning streak.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were horrible offensively against the zone,\u201d said BU Head Coach Joe Jones after the loss. \u201cWe stood around, tried to make one-on-one plays, it just took us out of our rhythm and I thought it really cost us the game.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Terriers\u2019 late-game struggles were compounded by their inability to defend Whitlock, who came into the game as the Patriot League\u2019s leading scorer, and finished with a game-high 30 points.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe let Whitlock go for 30, and that was the difference in the game,\u201d Jones said.<\/p>\n

The Terriers hot start to the second half salvaged a poor shooting day. BU shot 50% from the field but just 2\/11 in the first half from 3-point range and 33.3% from behind the arc in total.\u00a0<\/p>\n

For a BU squad that entered the game leading the Patriot League in three-point shooting percentage, the cold shooting night was an anomaly. Struggles from the perimeter forced BU to rely on its defensive pressure to create opportunities \u2014 the Terriers scored 17 points off ten Lehigh turnovers.\u00a0<\/p>\n

McNair and freshman guard Chance Gladden led the team offensively, finishing with 17 points each. Sophomore center Ben Defty also chipped in 14 points and eight rebounds.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Despite the poor shooting, the Terriers opened up an eight-point lead late in the first half and a double-digit lead midway through the second half. Both times, the Mountain Hawks were able to cut into the lead, with BU\u2019s inconsistent offense unable to blow the game open.<\/p>\n

\u201cI liked our fight. I thought we just weren\u2019t able to finish it,\u201d Jones said. \u201cWe outplayed them for most of the game. We just couldn\u2019t finish.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Terriers will look to rebound from the loss when they return home to play Holy Cross at Case Gym on Wednesday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Midway through the second half, Boston University seemed poised to extend its win streak to six after hitting…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":500215,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[574],"tags":[64,63,726,85],"class_list":["post-500214","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-basketball","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-basketball","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/500214","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=500214"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/500214\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/500215"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=500214"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=500214"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=500214"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}