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Boston College Men’s Basketball fell to the Syracuse Orange 77 to 68 at Conte Forum Saturday night. Syracuse’s Jesse Edwards played a huge part in the win as he went 12 for 15 from the floor, scoring 27 points and grabbing 7 rebounds.
The Eagles struggled early on the offensive end of the court as they tried to break Syracuse’s 2-3 zone defense. They were unable to push the ball into the middle of the court or even down low into the paint, resulting in a lot of early three-pointers being taken. Thankfully, both Makai Aston-Langford and Mason Madsen were able to knock down a few early threes to keep the game close.
Syracuse’s stout zone defense also provided them with an astounding four turnovers in the first ten minutes alone as Boston College kept forcing the ball into the middle of the court. This pattern continued throughout the game as the strong defense for the Orange directly turned into offense. By the end of the game, they would score 18 points off of turnovers compared to just 7 for the Eagles.
While Boston College’s mistakes did play a large role in the loss, their inability to stop Jesse Edwards was another major contributing factor. Syracuse often moved the ball around up top before finding an open lane to get the ball to Edwards in the paint. From there he would have a one-on-one matchup, usually against BC's Quinten Post, who did an admirable job defending but was no match for the 6'11'' senior from Amsterdam.
Despite Syracuse controlling the first half, the Eagles hung around and went into the locker room down by only three points. This combined with a 7-0 run by the Eagles to start the second half allowed them to take the lead once more, and was the only time in the game they looked truly dominant.
Unfortunately, this success was not meant to last as Syracuse stormed back after a timeout with a 10-0 run of their own. A combination of missed shots and poor defense once again led to Edwards taking advantage of Boston College.
The Eagles showed a lot of fight and managed to take a 59 to 56 lead off of Aston-Langford’s steal and score. The first ten minutes of the second half saw a more even game than the first half as both teams managed to put together runs resulting in a multitude of lead changes.
Ultimately, it was the unresolved issues from the first half that would come back to haunt the Eagles. As Boston College continued to miss more and more threes, they continuously made bad passes into the middle of the court, resulting in a spree of scoring off of turnovers by the Orange. While they did try to double Edwards to moderate success, they were forced to go back to single coverage down low at this point, giving Syracuse even more easy layups.
Using these elements to their advantage, Syracuse went on both 8-0 and 14-2 runs late in the game, finally pulling away from a Boston College team that had been hard to shake up to this point. The final nail in the coffin was Boston College’s Jaeden Zachary fouling out with 1:12 left. While the Eagles did pull within six points in the last minute, it was clear the game was over.
The packed crowd at Conte Forum left entertained but ultimately disappointed after forty minutes of hard fought basketball. The win over Clemson this past Tuesday left many thinking this could be the start of a Boston College winning streak. But Syracuse dashed these hopes. They have now beaten the Eagles ten straight times.
Catch the Men’s Basketball team next against the Virginia Tech Hokies this Wednesday at 7:00pm in what’s sure to be an exciting game.
