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Duke 79, BC 59
EAGLES KRZYZEWSKIVILLE FUTILITY CONTINUES
The Eagles' remain 0-for-Durham, with a 79-59 loss to Duke, and trying to explain how his team went from executing in the first half to unraveling in the second, BC coach Al Skinner was dumbfounded.
“I don’t know how to explain it," he said.
The Eagles (10-7, 1-2 ACC) committed 7 of their 13 turnovers in the second half, most of those coming in the first four minutes of the second half when Duke (14-2, 2-1) went on an 8-0 run fueled by those miscues. The Eagles went numb offensively and were pretty much caught in headlights from that point.
"We clearly did not match their intensity," Skinner said. "It’s just a tale
of two halves. I can’t believe we didn’t come out with more energy that we did.
We mishandled the basketball. We didn’t execute. We missed our free throws. Had
a couple of layups, missed those. It was just a lack of intensity on our part
and obviously that’s the difference in the ball game. You’ve got to be willing
to play 40 minutes and obviously we did not."
Reggie Jackson led BC with 20 points on 8 of 12 shooting, but Nolan Smith seemed to make every play for Duke, scoring 24 points, handing out four assists and coming up with three steals.
His explanation for the second-half rush: "To be 1-1 in the conference, there was no way our veterans were going to let us go to 1-2 in the conference. That was the main message."
SECOND HALF
79-59, End of game: Bedtime for the Eagles in Durham. Duke ups its record to 14-2 (2-1 ACC) on the strength of a 24-point night from Nolan Smith. BC, still seaching for consistency falls to 10-7, scoring just 24 points in the second half.
74-50, Duke, 3:44: At this point it, it's just a matter of running the clock down. BC's scored 15 points in the second half. In that brain-freezing loss to Maine, they scored 19 in the second half. The race is on.
68-47, Duke, 7:17: As much as turnovers killed the Eagles early in the half, Duke's buried BC on the glass. They've out-rebounded the Eagles 33-20, but they've done a number on BC on the offensive glass (16-9), getting second chance opportunities, including the one that came when Kyle Singler gobbled up a Mason Plumlee miss, got it back to Plumlee, who was able to get a layup to go on the second try. Right now, though, Nolan Smith's your player of the game with 22 points.
60-41, Duke, 11:57: Pardon the delay. Technical difficulties. While we were away, all you missed was the Eagles unraveling and the Blue Devils running away with things. Out of the gate, Duke eight unanswered points, turning turnovers into buckets. They got fastbreak points, transition buckets off BC misses, dunks on easy drives and, to top it off, an alley-oop from Smith to Kyle Singler.
FIRST HALF
38-35 Duke, End of half: The only thing stopping Duke from ending the half on a 7-0 run was Reggie Jackson going it alone with time winding down, getting to the free throw line and hitting two free throws to make it a 3-point game at the break. Nolan smith made two big plays, turning a BC turnover into a fastbreak dunk and also getting a floater to go that put Duke up 38-33. BC's shooting 50 percent from the floor. They're also allowing Duke to shoot 48.1 percent. Neither team can find the cup from long range (they're a combined 2 of 13 from 3). Duke's winning the rebound war, 16-14. But after starting the game with 5 turnovers in less than nine minutes, BC's protected the ball well, turning it over just once in the finall 11. Smith and Miles Plumlee lead all scorers with 10 points. Reggie Jackson has BC's high with 9 off the bench.
31-30, BC 3:15: The score is indeed accurate. The Eagles are forcing Duke to fight on their home floor. Thank the bench, which has supplied BC with 16 of its 31 points, led by Reggie Jackson, who's got 7 so far, including an absolutely disgusting one-handed dunk while the Dukies were napping that made it 25-24. But give a nod to Dallas Elmore as well. He's looked like a defensive back tonight, picking off two passes. He's also cashed in at the free throw line (3 of 4), and has five points so far.
19-16 Duke, 11:22: Al Skinner's chasing in on the lineup change early. Josh Southern scored seven of the Eagles first 11 points, including getting a nice roll on a lay-up down low, getting fouled and converting the 3-point play. One of BC's bugaboo's is still hanging around though. they've turned the ball over five times in barely nine minutes.
Another sign the crowd's having an impact. When Reggie Jackson stepped on the floor, the 'Crazies' started chanting "Fix your headband!" (trust, it's funny when 10,000 people say it at the same time). Trying his hardest to look like he didn't hear it, Jackson eventually gave in, adjusting it slightly. To his credit, he drilled a three from in front of Duke's bench that made it 14-14.
9-6 Duke, 15:00 First sign that the environment's having an effect on the Eagles, Rakim Sanders feel for an old trick. With the shot clock under 10, the 'Crazies' started counting down. Only they were counting down from 5, when there were actually about 8 seconds left. Sander, double-teamed, heaved up a 3 with five seconds still on the clock, clanging it hard off the iron.
The same thing happened in Clemson.
The Eagles haven't let Duke's press bother them much, but missed shots (BC is 3 of 8) has allowed Duke to speed the pace up.
A pretty tall order tonight for Boston College's men's basketball team: Travel to the Triangle, try to ignore the Cameron Crazies, then, battle an eighth-ranked Duke still heated after dropping one to Clemson over the weekend.
BC, losers of two of its past three games, is obviously still looking for some consistency. Coach Al Skinner's answer: a change! He'll reinsert Josh Southern into the lineup in place of a "struggling" Reggie Jackson.
Answering questions earlier in the week, Skinner sounded not necessarily defeated but disappointed.
"Maybe I over-estimated where we were at the start of the season," Skinner said. "Now we’re trying to go back and break it down and not start all over, but reassess what we’re trying to do, but there’s no question I’m a little surprised because of the amount of experience that we’ve had. I thought we’d be mentally a little better prepared that what we are."
So your lineups:
BC
Corey Raji
Joe Trapani
Josh Southern
Biko Paris
Rakim Sanders
Duke
Nolan Smith
Kyle Singler
Miles Plumlee
Jon Scheyer
Lance Thomas
About the college sports blog Updates and insights from Globe sports editor/hoop junkie Joe Sullivan and his college staff reporters, including Mark Blaudschun on Boston College football.
contributors
Look for updates from the following Boston Globe reporters:
- Michael Vega
- Mark Blaudschun
- Nancy Marrapese-Burrell
