Tyreek Duren is Good: BU vs. La Salle Recap

The Boston University Terriers looked to fight strong against another A-10 team tonight (7 point loss to St. Joe's earlier this season) in the Explorers of La Salle University. Coming off a rather lackluster performance against The Bison of Bucknell University, I had expected Coach Jones to get the boys going and ready for tonight's matchup. Going without D.J. Irving, who remains out with a concussion, the Terriers struggled mightily with the highly athletic Explorers as they fell 70-53.

More on the game after the jump.

This game was never really in jeopardy for La Salle. Led by the impressive range and scoring of Tyreek Duren, the Explorers were shooting 71% from the field in the first half (75% from 3 pt.). Duren easily shined above all others in this game as he finished with 23 points, 7 rebounds, and 5 assists. Couple his play with that Ramon Galloway's impressive performance off the bench and Jerrell Wright's presence down low, La Salle looked like a very solid basketball team.

However, the Terriers made them look a lot better. Their poor decision making, inability to connect on easy shots, and despicable free throw efforts plagued them all game. The lone bright spot for BU tonight was the impressive play of Malik Thomas who turned in 17 points and 8 rebounds off the bench. Recently, he is showing why he is playing D-1 ball. He might look terribly awkward and out of place on the court, but he has nice shooting touch and can make some nice moves on the court to create for himself. If he added like 50 pounds, he'd be a dominant player.

The big men for the Terriers need to play bigger. They get many opportunities down low, but do not convert as often as they need to. They all have trouble controlling the ball and often times fall away from contact instead of attacking and attempting to draw the foul. Dom Morris, Patrick Hazel, and Jeff Pelage all need to start converting the easy baskets to keep BU in the game. The Terriers, when they rely solely on the perimeter game, are too one-dimensional. They need to utilize the size on the post, especially as they enter conference play.

Overall, BU simply did not have the fire to win tonight. They gave up a lot of size and athleticism tonight and they almost seemed psyched out. I thought Darryl Partin would play very well tonight, being his first time back in Tom Golla Arena since transferring, but he was a non factor all night. Not having D.J. Irving really hurts the Terriers. Without him, they are going to have a very tough time as we enter conference play. There is a lot of work that needs to be done. Tonight is a clear sign that the Terriers are not performing well enough to win. They are missing that extra kick to play an entire 40 minutes.