Boston College came out of the gates tonight on their heels, and the Cardinals took advantage. Louisville jumped out to a 16-4 lead early in the first half, but the Eagles hung around. Donald Hand, Jr. continues to be a bright spot scoring 13 points on 5 of 8 from the field and 3 of 6 from behind the 3 point line. Louisville extended the lead to 15 at one point, but Boston College continued to crawl back into the game and had answers for Louisville’s buckets. The 3 headed monster of Chucky Hepburn, Terrence Edwards, Jr., and J’Vonne Hadley combined for 27 of Louisville’s 41 points, as the Cardinals lead the Eagles 41 – 31 at the break. Hepburn did a great job of controlling the game on the offensive side of the ball for Louisville. The Eagles shot just 40% from the field, so they did a good job of staying within striking distance despite some poor shooting.
The second half began with the Eagles once again struggling to cut into the Cardinals’ lead. The differential hovered between 8 and 12 points for the majority of the game, until there was about 8 minutes remaining. The Cardinals then went on a 9-0 run and started to open up the lead, and the game got away from Earl Grant’s squad. The Cardinal’s also did all this without their point guard, Chucky Hepburn, who went down with an injury at the beginning of the half. Hadley and Edwards had no issues picking up the slack. They combined for 39 points on the night going 16 of 27 from the field and seemingly answering every time Boston College looked like they were about to threaten. Louisville scored 48 points in the paint and shot 50% from the field for the game. Chad Venning, who was out tonight with a foot injury, may have been able to slow down the Louisville Grad Transfers, but it likely wouldn’t have made much of a difference. Boston College scored just 6 points in the final 8 minutes of the game. The score was 64 – 52 with 8:30 remaining in the game, and the final score was 84 – 58.
Boston College really looked overmatched tonight. Edwards and Hadley were in complete control of the second half, and the Eagles didnt have any answers. After a tough start, Boston College pretty much went shot for shot with Louisville until the 8 minute mark where they seemingly ran out of gas. Hand showed again that he is one of the premier scorers in the ACC, and the Eagles’ best player. The Eagles were without Venning tonight who is obviously a big piece on the interior, but this game was ugly.
The Eagles now sit at just 2-9 in the conference. But, they do travel to Syracuse this weekend to play the struggling Orange who only have 4 wins in conference play. Boston College tips off against Syracuse at 3:15 ET Saturday, February 8th. Hopefully, Boston College can get a win in the Carrier Dome.