Box Score |  Photo Gallery 

EASTON, Pa. - The Lafayette men's basketball team fell victim to a second-straight overtime loss on Saturday afternoon at Kirby Sports Center, dropping an 89-82 contest to Boston U.

"We got good shots and shot pretty well for the game," head coach Fran O'Hanlon said. "When we moved the ball, we got good looks and they just didn't drop in the first half."

Trailing by just eight after shooting 28.1 percent from the field in the first 20 minutes, the Leopards came out of the break a different team, hitting on 8-of-14 three's in the second stanza to send the game to overtime, tied at 69-69.

However, in the overtime session, Boston U. couldn't miss from the foul line, hitting on all 13 of its attempts down the stretch. Junior co-captain Nick Lindner did all he could in the extra session, scoring six points on two three's, but the Leopards couldn't complete the comeback.

With the loss, Lafayette falls to 5-17 on the year and 2-9 in conference action, dropping its sixth straight game. Boston U. improves to 14-11 overall and 7-5 in Patriot League play, winning its fourth in a row.

Sophomore Matt Klinewski tallied a game-high 21 points to lead the Leopards offensively, while freshman Paulius Zalys recorded his second career double-double with 14 points and 10 rebounds. Junior Monty Boykins and Lindner finished out the double-figure scorers for the Maroon and White with 17 and 15 points, respectively.

"We came out strong in the second half," Klinewski added. "We wanted to get this game and get over the hump, but we just couldn't get it done."

Lafayette's 18 assists tied for its second-highest total of the season on 31 field goals. The Leopards were outrebounded, 42-36, and Boston U. boasted five double-figure scorers, led by 19 points from Eric Fanning.

The game started evenly as both sides tallied six points after the first three minutes before a Nick Havener triple took the game into the first media timeout with Boston U. on top, 9-6.  The Terriers scored 10 of the next 13 points, forcing an O'Hanlon timeout at the 10:57 mark with the edge at 10, 19-9.

Six straight from Klinewski, finished by a jumper at the eight-minute mark, helped the Leopards settle in through the midway point of the half, down six at 21-15. Lafayette's second three in 11 tries to open the game came off the hands of senior Zach Rufer with 5:45 to play to cut the edge to five, 23-18.

However, the Terriers responded as a three from John Papale and a jumper from Cheddi Mosely, coupled with empty possessions from the Leopards opened the lead back to 10, 28-18, with 3:52 on the clock. That lead held through the majority of the rest of the half as a Boykins finish through a foul sent the game into the break with Lafayette trailing, 30-22.

Lafayette came out strong in the second half as a put-back from Boykins and a step-back jumper from Zalys made it a five-point game at 33-28 after two minutes. Then, a couple minutes later, Scott found Lindner at the end of the shot clock for a long right-wing triple that made it a one-possession game at 37-34 into the under-16 media stoppage.

Mosely's triple off an offensive rebound moved the edge back to six, but a strong drive and slam from freshman Auston Evans cut the edge to four, 40-36, with 14 minutes remaining. The Terriers didn't let that sway momentum, though, as they responded to move into the 12-minute timeout with a seven-point advantage, 50-43.

Lindner's deep three with nine minutes to play made the lead four again, 54-50, and another triple from the junior cut it to one, 54-53, with 7:40 remaining. Papale's transition three with six minutes to play, though, completed another Boston U. response, pushing the advantage back to six, 59-53.

The back-and-forth continued through the five-minute mark with Rufer's left-corner three tying the game at 59 for the first time since 6-6. Then, Klinewski's baseline jumper from the left side gave Lafayette its first lead of the game with 3:40 to go.

Out of the timeout, Lafayette went right to Boykins in the left corner, who hit his second three of the contest to put the Leopards up four, 64-60. That four-point edge held through the 42-second mark, before a Nathan Dieudonne dunk made it a two-point game at 69-67.

Diedonne, a 56-percent foul shooter, tied the game at 69 with two free throws and three seconds remaining in regulation. A falling-forward jumper attempt from senior Bryce Scott at the buzzer skimmed off the front of the rim and the game went to overtime.

The Terriers took control early in overtime as Boykins was stripped, leading to a Papale three on the first possession for either side. Boykins redeemed himself by finishing through a foul on the following possession, but five straight from Kyle Foreman made it 77-72 with two minutes to play.

The Terriers let foul shooting handle the rest as they went 12-of-12 from the line in the final 1:13 to ice the game with a final score of 89-82.

"I knew that, with the effort we gave in the first half and the looks we were getting, the shots were going to go down, so our game plan didn't change at halftime," Boykins said. "Losing back-to-back in OT hurts, but we know that if we keep giving the effort that we gave, we'll keep putting ourselves in position to win the game and we'll hopefully be able to close it out next time."

Lafayette will have to shake off back-to-back extra-time losses quickly, hosting archrival Lehigh on Monday a 7 p.m.