Saturday, November 22, 2008

Live Blog: St. Peter's College vs. Boston University

St. Peter's (0-2) and Boston University (1-1) tip off at 1:00 p.m. at Case Gymnasium. The game is BU's first at The Roof this season and the seventh meeting overall between the two teams. BU leads the all-time series, 4-2.

Here are the starting lineups for this afternoon's game:

St. Peter's College Peacocks:
02 F Ismalia Traore
04 F Ryan Bacon
15 G Wesley Jenkins
22 G Nick Leon
31 F Akeem Gooding

Boston University Terriers:
02 F Matt Wolff
13 G Corey Lowe
21 F Jake O'Brien
23 F John Holland
24 G Tyler Morris
(Note: Scott Brittain is healthy and will see action in his first game of the season today off the bench.)

First Half


15:10 remaining: St. Peter's leads 11-9. The Terriers jumped out to a 7-2 lead before the Peacocks closed the gap. John Holland has five points, including a 3-pointer from the left corner that put BU up 7-2, but St. Peter's is getting good looks down low and has eight points in the paint. Corey Lowe has two assists early and BU is shooting 4-of-7 while SPC is 5-of-7.

Jeff Pelage and Carlos Strong checked in at the first media timeout. O'Brien and Pelage are once again on the floor together, giving BU a decided height advantage over St. Peter's.

11:30 remaining: Game tied at 14 after Lowe hit a left-corner 3-pointer and scored on a reverse layup following a nice backdoor cut. He'll be at the line to shoot one more as he was fouled on the play. SPC is rotating their lineup in segments and four new players came on the floor after the first timeout.

Pelage was playing his man at the top of the key as Gooding wandered out there. Interesting to see the big man so far up.

10:45 remaining: The Terriers lead 20-14. BU is on an 11-0 run after the Terriers' fifth steal of the game led to a layup by Marques Johnson and Holland nailed a wide-open 3-pointer on an assist from Johnson after a missed 3 by St. Peter's.

Scott Brittain entered the game with 10:10 remaining in the first half after Holland picked up his second foul.

A questionable foul call on Morris gave him his second personal and puts the Terriers over the limit. SPC will be in the bonus the rest of the way.

7:14 remaining: The Terriers lead 23-17. A 3-pointer by Jenkins ended BU's run and the only other scoring since the last update came by way of a trey from Carlos Strong on the left side. Matt Wolff started to drive and kicked it to Strong for the wide-open 3.

O'Brien checked back into the game for Brittain and had a nice defensive possession, forcing Gooding to alter his layup and then getting back to emphatically block a shot on the same possession after SPC got the offensive rebound.

5:03 remaining: BU's run is up to 17-3 after O'Brien scored his first points of the game on a 3-pointer from the right side, assisted by Lowe. 26-17 Terriers.

BU's man-to-man defense has been bothering SPC the entire half thus far as the Terriers are using heavy ball pressure to force at least seven Peacocks miscues.

3:46 remaining: The Terriers lead 26-20. A trey by Jenkins served as the only points scored since the last update. Strong was the first Terrier to get to the line for two shots (Lowe had an and-1) with roughly 4:00 remaining, but missed both.

3:27 remaining: Morris picked up his third foul fighting for a rebound after a SPC miss. Ismalia Traore made both free throws. BU leads 26-22.

Halftime: St. Peter's ended the half on a 5-0 run to trim BU's lead to 26-25 at the break. BU ran into foul trouble in the final two minutes as Lowe and Strong picked up their second fouls. The Terriers had 12 first-half infractions as the game has been called tightly.

It's a shame Holland had to take a seat when he picked up his second foul with 10:10 remaining. He was off to a hot start (3-of-4 and two from downtown) and is tied with Lowe as the team's leading scorer with eight points at halftime.

BU is distributing the ball well on offense and playing like the balanced team they have the capability of being (eight assists in the first half), but at times, perhaps, they were too tentative, leading to 11 turnovers on the offensive end. It appears the Terriers are slightly more confident playing at The Roof, but St. Peter's has looked the best they have so far this season.

O'Brien continues to show no fear in taking shots, but hasn't been as efficient as he was in his two previous games, making 1-of-6 from the floor. For the Peacocks, Jenkins is leading the team with seven points, but much like BU, no one is taking over or standing out and Lowe is doing a good job shutting down St. Peter's leading scorer. Gooding is the team's leading rebounder with four. The best aspect of SPC's game has been their ability to offensive rebound in traffic against a taller BU squad as they have eight to BU's five.

Given the fact that BU has five steals (according to the box score, it could and probably should be more) and St. Peter's has turned the ball over 11 times, a one-point lead at halftime is not where BU coach Dennis Wolff and his team want to be.

Second Half

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17:08 remaining: The Terriers lead 35-27. Much like he did in the overtime against Bucknell, John Holland has taken over. The Bronx, N.Y. native has netted seven straight points to fuel BU's 7-0 run and a 9-2 run to start the half. Holland's first make was a jumper from the foul line, assisted by Morris. The next was a right-side 3-pointer from Lowe and the third was a thunderous alley-oop after a steal by Lowe. Lowe took six steps to the top of the 3-point line while Holland ran the floor and signaled Lowe with his right hand to throw it up. Lowe put the pass in the perfect spot and Holland slammed it home to force SPC to call a full timeout.

16:32 remaining: BU leads 37-27. The Holland show continues as he's scored nine straight points for BU, this time converting on both of his shots from the line.

15:37 remaining: BU leads 39-29. SPC ended Holland (and BU's 11-2 run) but the Terriers are still up by 10. Lowe continues to facilitate the offense as he fed Wolff underneath who went up for a difficult layup and got fouled. Wolff missed the and-1.

13:20 remaining: The Terriers lead 41-35. Traore connected on a mid-range jumper and Jenkins scored on a breakaway layup to close the gap. Brittain scores his first points of the season on a baseline jumper assisted by Johnson.

11:45 remaining: BU leads 43-35. Wolff collected two straight steals. On the first fast break, he slowed things down and fed Holland for a 3, which Holland air-balled. On the next, he took it to the rim and was fouled. Wolff made both shots.

The refs are really calling this game tight for both sides. A lot of hand checks, a lot of charges what shouldn't have been called. It's disrupted the game flow considerably.

SPC is still dominating the glass against a bigger team, 26-15, and has 13 offensive rebounds. Pelage hasn't been in the game since he first checked in in the first half.

8:37 remaining: BU leads 50-39. Lowe just pulled up for an NBA-range 3-pointer after moving the ball across half court to extended the Terriers' lead to their largest of the day, 11. Holland had a nice put-back after an offensive rebound following the missed end of a 1-and-1 by O'Brien. O'Brien continues to struggle from the field, as he missed another left-side 3.

6:05 remaining: The Terriers lead 56-47. Lowe scored on a fastbreak layup assisted by Wolff and Holland made two free throws, upping his point total to 21. Leon drew SPC within seven after hitting a fade-away jumper and converting the and-1, but BU pulled away again after that.

Odd: there have been four jump balls in the second half. The possession arrow is pointing to BU.

4:13 remaining: BU leads 59-49. Leon hit both free throws on a 1-and-1, but Holland answered with a left-corner 3-pointer assisted by Morris. Holland's got 24. Makes you wonder if he hadn't sat out 10 minutes in the first half where he'd be at.

1:43 remaining: BU leads 64-58. Holland collected another offensive rebound after a missed 3 by Lowe. Following another 3 by Holland, Nick Leon scored his 14th point of the afternoon on a layup in the lane.

BU has two timeouts remaining, St. Peter's has none.

30 seconds remaining: BU leads 64-62. Lowe turned the ball over after driving into the lane and Leon converted the end of a nice fast break for SPC. On BU's next possession, Lowe missed two foul shots as his struggles from the free-throw line in pressure situations continue. Jenkins made two free-throws.

10.6 seconds remaining: BU leads 66-62. Lowe was fouled after Jenkins made his freebies. This time, Lowe didn't miss, though the first one took a kind bounce in. Jenkins was called for a 5-second violation on SPC's ensuing possession after being double-teamed by Wolff and Lowe, BU has possession up by four.

Morris makes 1-of-2 from the line to end the scoring.

Final: Boston University (2-1) 67, St. Peter's College (0-3) 62

Leading scorers:
SPC -- Wesley Jenkins, 17
BU -- John Holland, 26

Leading rebounders:
SPC -- Akeem Gooding, 7
BU -- Four tied at 4

Leading Assists:
SPC -- Brandon Hall, 3
BU -- Corey Lowe, 6

1 comment:

Matt said...

Cool blog.