Syracuse men’s basketball falls 80-75 to Boston College in Chestnut Hill Tuesday

Syracuse men’s basketball (14-7, 5-5 Atlantic Coast Conference) saw its late comeback bid fall just short in an 80-75 loss to Boston College (13-8, 4-6 ACC) on Tuesday at Conte Forum. The result marked the first time the Eagles prevailed over the Orange in the last 12 meetings between the teams.

After scoring a season-low 59 points just three weeks ago in a loss to SU, BC had its most efficient shooting night of the campaign, going 60% from the field. While it took over four minutes for the Orange to get on the board to begin the contest, they did string together a 13-2 run in the middle of the opening half to take a nine-point lead. After the Eagles called a timeout, guard Donald Hand Jr. converted their first three of the game and that’s when the hosts began to heat up. Boston College went on to go 10-for-20 from beyond the arc.

A big turning point occurred in the final minutes of the first frame and carried into the second when BC went on a 21-0 run to flip a seven point deficit into a 14 point advantage. While the Eagles committed 10 more turnovers than the Orange in the contest, head coach Earl Grant explained how cleaning up on those mistakes was a key to that run.

“In that stretch, we didn’t turn the ball over so [Syracuse] wasn’t getting transition baskets. We were able to stop them from getting easy [shots] and because they weren’t getting easy [shots], they had a harder time against our half-court defense,” said Grant.

Despite trailing 44-30 at one stage, Syracuse clawed back to within two points midway through the second half. However, Boston College received a big spark off the bench from junior Claudell Harris Jr. The guard accounted for half of BC’s threes and knocked down four of them in the final eight minutes of the contest. Harris went 7-for-11 and led all scorers with 19 points. Syracuse head coach Adrian Autry believed his team could have done more defensively to prevent BC, and particularly Harris, from having so much success.

“It was really more about what we didn’t do. Our defense just didn’t do the job we did the first time around. We just have to do a better job of defensively doing what we need to do to win games and I just thought today was the first time in a while that we just didn’t execute the game plan on the one guy that we knew could make shots” said Autry.

While the Orange held the Eagles’ leading scorer Quinten Post to nine points, Jaeden Zackery and Devin McGlockton both chipped in 15 to join Harris in double figures.

On the offensive side for Syracuse, guards JJ Starling and Judah Mintz finished with 18 points. Starling converted four of SU’s eight threes. Mintz went 2-for-7 from deep and turned the ball over four times. Forward Maliq Brown was the other Orange in double digits with 15 points.

cuse.com

One glaring issue for the ‘Cuse was its struggles at the free throw line. SU went just 7-for-14 at the charity stripe in the five-point loss. Mintz and Brown were a combined 0-for-6 from the line.

“I mean we did everything we needed to do to get ourselves back in the game as far as the way we attacked because we got fouled. If we make those foul shots, we’re stopping the clock and making a comeback. If you make those foul shots, it’s just a different game,” said Adrian Autry.

Syracuse has a chance to get back in the win column on Saturday when it pays a visit to Wake Forest (13-6, 5-3 in ACC) on Saturday. Game time is slated for 7:45 p.m. from Winston-Salem. Tune into WAER at 7:15 p.m. for McClurg Remodeling Countdown to Tipoff.