Boston College came out flat tonight and didn’t seem to play with the same amount of energy that they played with throughout the season thus far. Quinten Post didn’t establish himself, and the offense looked downright sloppy. Syracuse looked faster and better than us for the entirety of the first 16 minutes of the first half. We couldn’t get anything going on the offensive end and had no control over the pace of the game. Scoring is usually hard to come by in the Carrier Dome because of the amoeba-like 2-3 zone Syracuse is known for. Under their new coach, Adrian Autry, they’ve played a conventional man-to-man, which still gave the Eagles a lot of trouble. With about 4 minutes left, the Eagles came alive, led by Harris, and a buzzer beating 3 pointer by Mason Madsen. Somehow, the Syracuse lead was only 10 points at halftime.
The second half started the same way the first half did, with zero energy from the Eagles. But, like they did in the first half, they turned it around and took the lead at the 8 minute mark. The Eagles were held together by Devin McGlockton and Claudell Harris for the majority of the game. Chas Kelley and Mason Madsen also played well and with energy which can’t be said for the rest of the team. At the end of the day, you can’t win a basketball game on the road in the ACC with 21 turnovers.
This was a very frustrating night for Boston College. The Eagles played a bad first half tonight. They had zero energy, made bad decisions with the basketball, and didn’t make any shots. That is not a winning combination. I also question some of the substitutions at the end of the second half. The unit of Kelley, McGlockton, Madsen, Aligbe, and Hand got the Eagles back into the game and gave them the lead. I question why Harris wasn’t brought back in as he was our only player that could create his own shot. I also question the choice to bring Post and Zackery back into the game after the timeout at the 3 minute mark. At the end of the day, turnovers lost Boston College the basketball game. When your best player, Quinten Post, goes 0-4 from the field with 7 turnovers, it’s going to be really hard to win. We need to do a better job of establishing Post and getting him easy baskets, so he can get into the flow of the game. Tonight, both he and Zackery never looked comfortable.
Boston College will travel to Clemson to take on the #21 ranked Tigers on Saturday at 3 PM EST.