Welcome back to the Boston College basketball rollercoaster. After the Eagles won the Cayman Island Classic, many BC fans thought this team may not be as bad as originally believed. Then, they landed back in Boston and lost to Dartmouth at home. Tonight, the Eagles looked completely overmatched by South Carolina. Chad Venning held his own in the paint in the first half with 10 points, but the rest of Grant’s squad looked outmatched. South Carolina made BC work hard for every single basket, and Jamarii Thomas made it tough on Chad Kelley to bring the ball up the floor and start the offense. There was little to no movement on the offensive end for BC, and the Gamecock’s didn’t give the Eagles any breathing room. The Eagles shot just 25% from the field in the first half and scored 19 points. You would think Coach Grant would’ve tried to get the Eagles out in transition as the half-court offense was not working. BC trailed South Carolina 36-19 heading into halftime.
The second half was much of the same. South Carolina continued to play aggressive defense that didn’t allow Boston College to comfortably get into any of their sets on offense. Every time the Eagles trimmed the lead to within shouting distance, South Carolina answered. Grant and his squad never got into a rhythm and South Carolina had their way with us on both ends of the floor. Collin Murray-Boyles of South Carolina dominated with 16 points and 14 rebounds while manning the paint. The Eagles shot just 33% from the field for the game and 12% from behind the 3 point line. Chad Venning and Donald Hand were the only two BC players in double figures tonight. Venning finished with 12 and Hand tacked on 10. The final score was South Carolina 73, Boston College 51.
This was a disappointing performance tonight for Earl Grant and the Eagles. They were very overmatched for the entirety of the game, and there aren’t many highlights. The offense is non-competitve. Jamarii Thomas started the game by picking up Chad Kelley full court and that set the ton for the rest of the day. Thomas wore Kelley out and made it very difficult on him to set up the offense. Once the offense was set up, there was a lot of standing and screen and rolls from just inside of half court. It wasn’t just Thomas that played aggressive defense the whole night, it was the entire Gamecock roster. Shooting just 33% from the field is not exactly shooting the lights out, especially when some of those makes came in garbage time. I’m not sure why Earl didn’t try to speed the game up at all and press South Carolina. It seems like that may have helped the fact that we had a hard time getting into any sort of offense.
Boston College opens up ACC play this weekend at Wake Forest. Hopefully, the Eagles can flush this game and start the ACC schedule 1-0.