Box Score

BOSTON - The Lafayette men's basketball team couldn't put two consistent halves together on Wednesday night in Boston, Mass., as Boston U. took advantage of second-half struggles to send the Leopards to an 81-65 defeat.

The Maroon and White, entering the second half with a five-point advantage, could never get going in the final stanza, managing just 24 points in the last 20 minutes. The loss drops the Leopards to 9-19 on the year overall and 7-10 in Patriot League play.

Losses by Loyola and Army give Lafayette at least a home game in the Patriot League Tournament with seeding still to be decided on Saturday. The Leopards will need a win over Lehigh and a Holy Cross loss at Colgate to earn the six seed and stay out of the first round of games with a bye.

Lafayette was led offensively by freshman Alex Petrie with 13 points, followed by junior Paulius Zalys with 11. Senior co-captain Matt Klinewski managed eight points and nine boards, while sophomore Lukas Jarrett chipped in with three steals. The Leopards shot 27-of-57 on the night (47.4%) and 8-of-22 from beyond the arc (36.4%).

On the other side, Boston U. registered four players in double-figure scoring, led by 21 from freshman point guard Javante McCoy. Cedric Hankerson, Max Mahoney and Walter Whyte followed with 17, 16 and 14 points, respectively.

It was a good pace to start as both offenses were executing with the home side up two, 13-11, after five-plus minutes. Senior co-captain Eric Stafford kicked in with one his best four-minute stretches of the year, drilling a pair of threes to move the Leopards in front at the 11:03 mark, up five, 21-16.

That momentum continued to the under-eight timeout as a transition bucket from Zalys followed a Petrie triple and a stop to move the advantage to nine, 31-22. That lead only grew out of the break as freshman Justin Jaworski and Jarrett went back-to-back from deep to force a BU stoppage at 6:09 with the lead out to 15, 37-22.

BU stopped the momentum there as that timeout calmed down the Terriers and sparked a run right back of 12 straight to pull within three, 37-34, with 2:01 to play in the half. Lafayette was able to stop the momentum going into the break through, scoring four of the final six points to take a 41-36 advantage into the intermission.

The Terriers took control right out of the gates in the second half, using a 9-2 run to regain the lead and force a Lafayette timeout at 16:06, up 45-43. That edge ballooned as high as 10 at 14:02, but the Leopards answered with a 7-2 spurt of their own to make it a 55-50 game with 11:24 to play.

Boston U. came right back though with four straight hits from distance to push the lead to its highest of the game to that point for the home side at 8:07, 67-50. Petrie's runner down the right side of the lane stopped the run and took the game into the under-eight timeout with the deficit at 15.

Unfortunately, turnovers and quality offense from Boston U. broke open the game from there as the Terriers ran out to a 27-point advantage, up 81-54 with 3:46 remaining. Lafayette played the final minutes tough, but the deficit was too large to overcome, falling by a final of 81-65.

Lafayette finishes up its regular-season schedule on Saturday for a rivalry rematch with Lehigh. Tip-off from enemy territory is set for 7:30 p.m.