Live Blog For Tonight's Terriers v. Dayton Game.

Since I didn't write a preview this week I am writing a live blog. Listen along at 1510 the zone.

7:20 PM - They are just under way in Dayton. So far the Terriers are not doing too well. I am listening to the Terriers go to Dayton on the radio, I am watching Hartford play The #1 ranked University of Kentucky. Both teams are doing horrible in the easy going. Dayton leads 17 - 7, 11:09 left to go in the first.

7:25 PM - Ugh, right after hitting a three we give up an easy uncontested three. Not good guys, you have to get back and play defense. I'm beginning to think that BU's defense is not great. If you look at the point totals of the opposing teams in the last three games, you realize that we give up too many.

7:29 PM - Dayton is getting too many dunks in this game. And BU is trying way too many threes, 9 of their 14 shots have been threes. Corey Lowe at the line shooting 3, first free throws of the game for BU. Commercial break Dayton leads 27 - 13.

7:33 PM - Carlos Strong with three threes BU pulls to within 8, 6:30 left in the first. The Terriers with a late surge.  Commentators make a good point, John Holland needs to wake up, he is the best player on the team.  So far 3 shots no fields goals.

7:39 PM - Holland doing well on defense but very poor on offense.  He took a charge, and has blocked a shot but has put up three air balls.

7:40 PM - Not a good stat.  The Terriers have turned the ball over 9 times.  With 3:12 to go Dayton still leads 33 - 23.

7:44 PM - Whenever BU plays superior opponents they play a streaky game.  So far the Terriers have been up and down.  Started the game horrible, climbed to within 7. Then go down by 15 again.  All the work they made in the last 7 minutes was just erased.

7:45 PM - John Holland with the steal at half court breaks away with an easy one handed slam.  The commentator put it very well: "The Dayton crowd is used to seeing dunks, but I don't think they like it so much when it's the opposing team."

7:49 PM - Three steals in a row for BU.  Tyler Morris gets called for traveling, then on the inbounds Rob Lowery drains a 30 footer as time expires. Dayton goes into the locker room up by 12; Dayton 41 - 29.  A crazy couple of series for BU there, would've been nice to go into the half down by single digits..

Halftime - The Terriers need more consistent play from a few of their players.  John Holland has been really good on the the defensive end of the court but on the offensive end, where he really excels, he has not been doing that great this year.  A one handed dunk is exciting, but not exactly the hardest play.

Keys to the second half

• Rob Lowery for Dayton has hit four three pointers in the first half.  Those 12 points are the difference in the game.  The Terriers need to take away those shots from the Flyers to have any chance in the second half.
• The Terriers have double digit turnovers in the first half.  They just need to take care of the ball better.

Second Half

8:06 PM - A three off the first possession, a turnover and another three. "It's a six point game kids." Just like that.

8:09 PM - Rob Lowery for another three, lead is back to 11.  Obviously my first key to the second half was not something Coach Chambers emphasized enough.

8:12 PM - Lowery hits another three...

8:15  PM - Terriers within four points of Dayton!14:10 to go.

8:18 PM - I know there is still a lot of time left in the game.  To begin the game it looked like Dayton was going to blow BU out.  Ever since the beginning of the second half the Terriers have looked solid.  A win against Dayton would be big for the Terriers.  Keep in mind Dayton was ranked to start the season and is still receiving votes in both polls.

8:23 PM - Ugh, the Terriers are starting to look bad again.  Get back and play DEFENSE!

8:25 PM - The crowd in Dayton really picked up the Flyers after they lost a good chunk of their lead.  Dayton has some great fans.  There are more Dayton fans at this game than there were UConn fans when BU went to Hartford.  Who knows why NCAA attendance is what it is.

8:29 PM - Dayton goes on an 11-2 burst after the timeout, and take a 13 point lead.

8:32 PM - The flow of this game is definitely a lot more smoother than the Mount Saint Mary's game.  There are definitely not nearly as many fouls (only 3 so far in the second half).  This has been a pretty entertaining game to listen to, especially if you are a BU fan.

8:37 PM - I just looked up to my TV  Hartford is losing by 40 to Kentucky, no surprise there really.  In a week and a half, I'll be going to my first Terriers away game at the University of Hartford.  I am looking forward to it, I should have a similar live blog / diary for that game and trip.

8:42 PM - 2:12 to go, BU still trails by 12.  I guess it was not meant to be.  Great effort though versus a really good Dayton team.  Dayton's star Chris Wright is projected to go in the NBA draft.


8:48 PM - Final - Dayton wins by 14 points. Dayton 74 BU 60.

Final Thoughts - The Terriers played a good game.  They need to do better on defense.  I don't know what the final stats are yet but Dayton shot way too well in the second half.  Dayton's Rob Lowery, only had 6 threes this season prior to theis game.  He put up 7 in this game and scored 23 points, that can't happen if you expect to win a game.  A strong showing but a loss is a loss.  This was an alright way to wrap-up the Terriers non-conference schedule.  I will write more on this game tomorrow.

_________

Terriers dominate The Mount 86 - 77

This is a game that I really don't want to spend that much time writing about.  BU jumped off to an early lead and never trailed in this game, they led by 20 at one point during the second half.  It really surprises me that the score was so high because of how inept both offenses were in the first part of the second half.  One of the cons of going to a live game; there is no button to change the channel.  You can't tune into a more exciting game and then switch back at the end of the game.  This felt like a game I would much rather listen to on 1510, while watching a much more exciting game on TV. 

The game did have it's exciting parts, don't get me wrong.  The thing that killed it was the pace.  For every one or two dunks there were ten fouls.  Combined there were 59 team fouls in this game.  In both halfs the two teams were in the bonus within the first ten minutes.  This killed the last ten minutes of the game.  Everytime there was the slightest bump the ref was calling it.  Then all of the players had  to walk at a snails pace to the other end for free throws.

I have to say though BU's brand of Basketball is a lot more exciting than most mid-major teams and huge improvement over last year.  The most impressive play of that game to me was when I saw John Holland hustle for a loose ball near the scorers table.  The whole crowd, and probably coach Chambers knew that he was not going to get it.  He dived anyway, it ended up being off of the Terriers.  But to see that kind of hustle on a routine play was like watching Derek Jeter run out a ground ball.  No matter what the cicumstance you are going to see John Holland give it his all every night.  John Holland averages almost 20 points per game which is enough to put him among the top 40 in the nation in scoring.  That's no fluke, the junior from the Bronx (coicidentally the same city where Derek Jeter plays home games) is a great player and has a legitimate shot to be the America East Player of the Year.

During the game, the Terriers utilized a trap full-court press early in the first half that was very effective.  They forced many turnovers and held The Mount to one field goal in the first nine minutes of the game.  BU struggled almost as much, scoring only a few field goals and wasn't really able to pull away until the second half.

(Halftime came and the Newton fifth grade boys team came onto the court.  For a bunch of little kids, some of them played pretty well.  They went up and down the court pretty quickly and made some impressive passes.  It was almost more exciting than the game itself).

I was hopeful about the second half.  And as mentioned before, this game did have it exciting parts.  The first ten minutes of the second half was probably the most exciting of the game.  The Terriers were making some clutch threes. John Holland made a couple of pretty spectacular dunks. And Jake O'Brien had some pretty sweet plays inside the paint. Both Holland and O'Brien ended the game with 21 points.  After the first ten minutes both teams were in the bonus, the game struggled to find any real flow the rest of the way.  There was a foul and foul shots every 30 seconds.  If the Terriers were up by 20 like they had been earlier in the game I probably woul've left.  But somehow The Mount stuck around by making more than 80% of their shots at the charity stripe (compared to the 56% the last game).

A deceiving score to an awful and worse game than I anticipated.  The Mount was never in this game.  They fell behind early in the game and could never find the energy to catchup to a very strong Terriers team right now.

With their first winning streak of the season the Terriers have to feel pretty confident about their performance thus far in the young season.  Dayon on Tuesday will be a real test.  Dayton is a better team but unlike the Georgia Tech, Kansas State and UConn games, I think they have a great show to win.

Other Notes:

• MVP of the game: John Holland, no surprise at all.
• The Mount Saint Mary's MVP: Shawn Atupem's hair (see my previous post).  He looked like one of those rappers fom the early 90's or the main character from house party.  Maybe the most exciting thing about the Mount Saint Mary's team.  I don't know how this team was picked first in the NEC, they are bad. 
• Coach Chambers was screaming at his team early in the game for fouling the The Mount.  The funniest part was how he said it "Stop fouling! They only have one field goal!"
• Like a dumbass I forgot to bring the camera.  I promise I will have pictures for the Stony Brook game.

Next Up:
Boston U v. Dayton Flyers
12/29 - 7 pm ET
 Listen: 1510 AM