The Boston College men’s basketball team gave #23 NC State all they could handle in each teams’ ACC opener on Saturday, but a few late errors and some clutch free throw shooting by the Wolfpack sent the Eagles home with a loss, 78-73. BC falls to 8-6 overall and 0-1 in ACC play, snapping a five-game winning streak.
While it would be easy to look at this game as a moral victory for the Eagles, there were too many chances for BC to win late so it still leaves you with a bitter taste in your mouth even though there were a lot of bright signs to build on in the loss.
BC went 24-for-37 from the free throw line, and none of those misses were more valuable to the overall result of the game than when Patrick Heckmann missed one of three free throws with BC down 74-71 in the final minute of the game. Heckmann was fouled shooting a three pointer and you couldn’t have scripted a more pressure-packed situation, as the sophomore came up a bit short and left BC in intentional foul mode for the rest of the contest.
Free throw shooting wasn’t the only issue for BC. The Eagles were in foul trouble seemingly from the tip-off, as NC State was in the penalty for the last 8-plus minutes of the first and second halves. You won’t win many, if any games when you put your opponent on the free throw line after every foul for almost half of the game, and this certainly was the case Saturday afternoon in the loss.
All problems aside, the Eagles still had ample opportunities to take this game late, but their inexperience may have been to blame for their missed chances in the second half.
Ryan Anderson had a big dunk with a foul at the 0:27 mark in the second half and after the made free throw NC States lead was cut to 72-71, and BC had new hope. But NC State senior Scott Wood calmly knocked down 2 free throws to stretch the lead back out to 74-71. Then Heckmann’s missed free throw resulted in 2 more made free throws by Wood on the other end, which seemingly iced the game. BC had a late three-point shot from freshman guard Joe Rahon that came up short and the Eagles were handed the loss in their first conference game of the season.
Ryan Anderson led the Eagles in scoring, as he normally does, with 22 points adding 13 rebounds to his overall impressive performance. Joe Rahon had a respectable 18 points in the contest, as he played a consistent game from start to finish at the point guard position.
The Eagles next game is this Wednesday night at Virginia Tech at 7 PM. The game can be seen on NESN.
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