Hoosiers drop second straight in Puerto Rico, 71-67

  • 11/20/2009 8:35 pm in

Boston University entered Friday’s game against Indiana coming off of losses to Iona, George Washington and Kansas State.

And for most of consolation bracket contest in the O’Reilly Auto Parts Tip-Off Classic, it appeared Boston and first-year coach Patrick Chambers would drop their fourth straight.

But after trailing the entire second half, a pair of free throws from Jake O’Brien gave Boston a 67-65 lead with 2:19 remaining and the Terriers (1-3) held on to beat Indiana, 71-67.

John Holland scored 21 points off the bench to lead Boston and O’Brien added 14 points and 13 rebounds.

The Terriers out-rebounded IU 52-32, had 19 second chance points and scored 15 more points from the foul line.

The Hoosiers (2-2) had a chance to tie the game in the final thirty seconds, but Maurice Creek and Verdell Jones both missed three-point attempts in the final 21 seconds and Corey Lowe hit a free throw to ice it for Boston.

“We tried to go to the best play possible,” Creek said. “Coach brought it up and it just didn’t work out.”

Creek paced the Hoosiers with 17 points, all in the first half. Jones added 14 points and six assists and Jeremiah Rivers chipped in 13 points, six rebounds and four assists.

“I thought we played a very aggressive 35 minutes,” Jones said. “But once again we didn’t play a full 40 minutes like we needed to and the result is a loss.”

Pick to Click: Verdell Jones

Up next: George Mason at 10:30 am ET on Sunday. The game will be televised by ESPNU.

Rebuilding effort: Crean shared the following via Twitter shortly after the game: “Nights like tonight make us all remember we are in a full scale rebuilding mode. The level of effort it requires is incredible but worth it.”

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