Men's Basketball Begins Four-Game Road Slate With Northeastern Tuesday
November 20, 2006 | Men's Basketball
Please note the time of the game has changed from 7:30 p.m. to 7 p.m. Live video of the game will be available at the time of the game. Please check www.gonu.com/tv Tuesday afternoon.
The Terriers are coming off a rough home loss to the Broncs of Rider University. Although BU shot well in the first half, the Terriers went cold at the end of the second half as the Broncs seized control of the game with 2:27 left with a lay up that gave Rider the lead for the rest of the contest. Freshman Corey Lowe (Newton, Mass.) and red-shirt freshman Tyler Morris (Indianapolis, Ind.) led the Terriers with 13 points apiece. Morris also recorded a game-high six assists. Senior Omari Peterkin (St. Thomas, Virgin Islands) was the other BU player in double figures with 12 points on 6-of-10 shooting. Peterkin leads the conference in field goal percentage (13-of-20, 65.0 percent).
Freshman Scott Brittain (Oakville, Ont.) had his best game as a Terrier, recording nine points on a perfect 3-for-3 night, including 2-for-2 from behind the 3-point line. He also grabbed seven rebounds and had two steals.
The BU-Northeastern series is the most-contested rivalry in Terrier history, with BU holding a slight edge, 69-64 overall. The series started in 1920-21 and the Terriers took home a 42-21 victory. The two teams played throughout the 1920s before taking a break until 1942-43. The series resumed consistently in 1944-45 and continued until 2004-05, a string of 60 straight years. The lapse in 2005-06 was the first since the 1941-42 season.
Forty-five of the games have been decided by five or fewer points, with NU holding a 24-22 edge in those games. Ten of those games have come down to one point. NU has a 7-3 mark in those games. Conversely, 60 games have been decided by 10 or more points, with BU winning that one 37-23. The contests have gone to overtime five times, with BU winning four of five games. Twice the Terriers have scored over 100 points against the Huskies (1982-83, 104-86; 1988-89, 104-84 in the ECAC Tournament). NU's highest point total came in 1974-75 when it beat BU 98-92 in overtime. Each team has recorded 18 season sweeps. BU's largest margin of victory has been 37 points (62-25 in 1945-46), and NU's largest win came in 1992-93 by the score of 96-58 (+38).
The last meeting between the two teams came on Feb. 20, 2005. Northeastern outscored Boston University 30-7 over the last 12 minutes of the game to erase an eight-point deficit and beat the Terriers 63-48 in front of 4,316 fans at Agganis Arena. The Huskies' Marcus Barnes scored 17 of his game-high 20 points in the decisive second half. BU fell victim to NU for the second time that season. It was the Huskies' first season sweep of BU since the 1998-99 season. BU led, 23-18, at the half and extended that lead to eight point on three different occasions, the last coming with 11:53 remaining that put the Terriers ahead, 41-33. It was then that BU went cold and NU started heating up from outside. Bennet Davis began the 30-7 run with a top-of-the-key trey and Barnes connected on one of his four three-pointers on the next possession. Another Barnes three at 8:33 gave NU a 44-43 lead. The Huskies retook the lead for good at 46-45 on a Shawn James layup with 6:26 to go. BU's basket at 8:18 proved to be the Terriers' last field goal of the game, as they went a combined 0-for-13 the rest of the way.
Tuesday's game will be a doubleheader for the men's and women's teams of BU and Northeastern. It is the first of two doubleheaders for the Terriers. The women will face Brown on Dec. 6 in Agganis Arena before the men host Massachusetts-Amherst that night.
