BOSTON – The Lafayette men's basketball team led for more than 39 minutes on Thursday evening in Boston, but the final seconds didn't go its way in the Patriot League opener as Boston U.'s Jonas Harper hit the eventual game-winning three from the right wing with 13 seconds left to knock off the Leopards by a final of 73-72.
 
With less than a minute to play and Lafayette up, 69-68, a turnover led to a Walter Whyte bucket in transition to put the Terriers on top for the first time, 70-69. Senior Kyle Stout answered with a three on the other end to put the Maroon and White back in front, but Harper's counter proved to be the final blow. Sophomore Tyrone Perry got an off-balance chance at the win in the waning seconds, but his effort fell short and left as the buzzer sounded.
 
The loss drops the Leopards to 8-4 on the year and 0-1 in Patriot League action, while Boston U. gets back to .500 at 7-7 and 1-0 in conference play.
 
Senior Lukas Jarrett put together one of his better all-around games of the year with 15 points, five rebounds, five assists, a steal and no turnovers. Junior E.J. Stephens led the Leopards with 17 points on the night, while classmate Justin Jaworski and senior Kyle Stout added 15 and 14 points, respectively.
 
The Terriers won the battle on the glass in the second half by an eight-board margin, making a difference with 10 second-chance points and a 36-26 edge in points in the paint. Max Mahoney led all scorers with 20 points, missing just one shot from the field and adding nine rebounds, one shy of a double-double.
 
Lafayette started on the front foot as a pair of triples in either corner from Stout powered a 13-4 advantage over the first four minutes. The Terriers answered with five straight out of the break, but Stephens found senior Myles Cherry on a pretty roll to the rim for a pair to make it 16-9 toward the midway point of the opening half.
 
Seven more over the next two minutes forced a Terrier timeout at the 9:19 mark with the lead up to 14, 23-9. Boston U. picked it up out of that stoppage, cutting it to three by the three-minute mark, but the Leopards managed the last few minutes effectively to take a 41-34 lead into the locker room.
 
Back-to-back triples from Whyte and Alex Vilarino trimmed the Leopard edge to one right out of the break, but answers from Jarrett and Stephens around the 15-minute mark kept the Leopards ahead and a triple from Jaworski took the game under the 12-minute mark with the edge at six, 55-49.
 
Stephens beat the zone with a smooth baseline jumper at the 8:23 mark to make it an eight-point game, 61-53, but the turnover bug hit over the next three minutes as a Mahoney put-back off a free throw tied it at 62-62. An at-the shot-clock-buzzer triple from Stephens at the 3:04 mark put momentum back on Lafayette's side and Cherry's post bucket made it 67-64 with two minutes left, but Boston U. made the plays down the stretch to decide it.
 
The Leopards return to Kirby Sports Center for the conference home opener in their next contest on Sunday, hosting Bucknell, a winner on Thursday night over Army, at 2 p.m.