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Week of 13 March 1998 |
Vol. I, No. 23 |
Sports
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BU's nine-game win streak ends Delaware beats Terriers, 66-58, for America East titleby Jack Falla Delaware forwards Darryl Presley and Mike Pegues spent more time in the paint than Picasso Saturday as they combined for 44 points and 23 rebounds to lead the top-seeded Fightin' Blue Hens to the America East Championship with a 66-58 win over defending champion Boston University March 7. The nationally televised win at the Bob Carpenter Center in Newark, Del., gave the Blue Hens (20-9) an automatic berth in the 64-team NCAA National Championship Tournament. The Terriers (19-11) stumbled out of the gate, hitting only 2 of their first 15 shots while Delaware was going 6 for 8 en route to a 16-4 lead after six and a half minutes. "I was disappointed we had such a slow start," says Terrier Coach Dennis Wolff. "I thought we had some pretty good looks and played pretty well defensively, but we were unable to make shots." The big difference in the game's early stages was points from the paint, in which Delaware (read Presley and the double-teamed Pegues) once held a 12-2 advantage. Terrier senior Joey Beard (SED'98) kept his team in the game by scoring its first 8 points and hitting for a team-high 17, enhanced by a game-high 15 rebounds. Late in the first half Beard, LeVar Folk (MET'99), and Walter Brown (CAS'99) -- the latter two finished the game with 9 points each -- led a BU resurgence that cut the Delaware lead to 29-26 by halftime. The Terriers took the lead 32-31 on a Brown dunk off a Folk steal early in the second half and stretched their margin to 40-35 on a Billy Beal (CAS'99) three-pointer from the top of the key with 14:26 to play. But that's when Delaware's Kestutis Marciulionis launched a trey seemingly from his native Lithuania (in reality, the extreme right corner) to spark a 9-0 Blue Hens run for a 44-40 lead that they pushed to a formidable 61-51 with 3:54 remaining. "[But] our kids don't give up," says Wolff. "A lot of teams right there would have said that's the game." Buckets by Beard and Jean Avebe (CAS'00) whittled the gap to six points with 2:55 remaining, and a Beard free throw brought the Terriers to within five (63-58) with 2:13 to play, but that's as close as they would get. A tough Delaware defense and cold Terrier shooting (35 percent from the field for the game) sealed the Blue Hens' third league title and first since 1993, ending Boston University's reign as league champs. Presley -- before he left the building and its raucous, largely blue-and-yellow-clad crowd (the 5,205 in attendance was the largest crowd ever to watch a college basketball game in the state of Delaware) -- deservedly received the tourney MVP trophy for a masterpiece performance that included a game-high 25 points (10 field goals, 5 free throws) and a team-high 13 rebounds. "We put ourselves in a position to win the game," says Wolff, whose team was once 5-6 in America East before reeling off a league-best nine consecutive wins heading into the finals. "We got the lead in the second half but we just couldn't make enough shots to win the game. The way we came back was indicative of how this team plays. It was really a microcosm of our season." |
Athletes of the Week
Joey Beard, Chris Drury, and Jeff Kealty
Men's basketball forward Joey Beard (SED'98) scored Boston University's first eight points in its America East Championship game at the University of Delaware. In the Terriers' 66-58 loss March 7 -- and cocaptain Beard's final game in a scarlet and white uniform -- he scored a team-high 17 points and had a game-high 15 rebounds.
Beard, a native of Reston, Va., transferred to BU from Duke University in December of 1994.
In the hockey Terriers' 9-1 slaughter of Merrimack March 8, Trumbull, Conn., native Chris Drury (CAS'98) scored 2 goals, bringing his season total to 24. His second, a redirection of a shot from cocaptain Chris Kelleher (CAS'98) at 17:43 of the third period, was the 109th of his career and sent Warrior backup goaltender Tom Welby into a rage. Both combatants were issued roughing penalties and 10-minute misconducts. Cocaptain Drury, BU's all-time leading scorer and the subject of a March 8 New York Times feature story, also picked up an assist in the game.
Defenseman Jeff Kealty (CAS'98) also scored two goals -- BU's first and last. It was the Framingham native's third multiple-goal game in his career. Kealty is enjoying his finest offensive season. At Catholic Memorial High School he was team captain his senior year and was also named a first-team Catholic Conference all-star. Catholic Memorial won state titles during each of Kealty's seasons there.