BY Corey Johns
Senior Staff Writer

It was one of those games that’s final score was extremely deceiving. UMBC lost by 17 but the game was as close as five with four minutes left. It didn’t start out that way though, UMBC started out hot getting out to a 16-6  lead just four minutes in.

But the score stayed at 16 for the Retrievers for the next 9:03 as Boston U went on an 18-0 run to go up 24-16.

“We just have to focus on every possession and get stops,” said Jay Greene. “Unfortunately we let them have the big run and in the future we just have to make sure that teams don’t have big runs like that.”

The man to break the drought was walk-on freshman Brett Burrier who has been the most used bench player in Richard Flemming’s absence. Burrier recorded a career high 16 minutes in the game, but that jumper was his only score of the night.

All season the depth has been a major issue for UMBC.  Other than Burrier, Wasco played five minutes and Bakari Smith has not been on the floor since he missed his chance to step up in a starting role against Vermont in Greene’s absence.

“You only need five to play,” said coach Randy Monroe. “It is what it is and you just have to play.”

But UMBC shouldn’t be relying on Burrier, Wasco, or Smith to win games. Darryl Proctor led UMBC with 18 point and nine rebounds and two blocks while Greene did everything he could to get the win with 17 points, five assists, three rebounds, and two steals.

Justin Fry continued his hot streak with another solid game. He scored 12 points for his third straight game in double figures.

“Justin Fry is terrific,” said Monroe. “He’s just playing very good basketball and doing a good job for us. I’m really liking what I’m seeing in him because he’s just really coming on and doing just such a good job for us. I just hope he can keep that up.”

This after Fry was averaging just 7.4 p.p.g. and 2.3 r.p.g. in the first 19 games.

“I just try to stay positive and keep working hard and I know things will turn around when they aren’t going so well,” Fry said.

But it still wasn’t enough for a win. The game was close until Chauncey Gilliam was ejected from the game at 4:14 for a flagrant foul of hitting Matt Wolff below the belt. After that the life looked to be sucked out of UMBC and Boston U outscored UMBC 12-4 to put the exclamation point on the win.

“I didn’t see it but I was told be the referees that [Wolff] was hit in the groin,” Monroe said, “I want to watch the tape. Chauncey said he didn’t hit him there intentionally but the referees said he did.”

Regardless of intent, Gilliam should not have been ejected from the game. NCAA rules allow referees to review a foul on the referees table to decide whether it was flagrant or not, but not to review if there was a foul. At the time of the incident no whistle was blown and no foul was called. The referees reviewed it on tape and then called a foul on Gilliam, illegally ejecting him from the game.

“John Holland made two big shots right after that,” said Boston U coach Dennis Wolff. “Two big three’s right away to give us a little more breathing room.”

Boston U just battled the entire game. Freshman Jake O’Brien set a new career high with 25 points (16 point came from behind the arc) for the Terriers and the team went an astounding 25-for-30 from the charity stripe, including a 10-for-10 performance from Scott Brittain. They also caused 12 turnovers and scored 17 points off of them.

Now UMBC has their sites set on rebounding from a two-game slide in Orono, Maine against the Black Bears. They will have a mini bye week with five days between games, and time to work things out in practice and get ready.