BC lets down its guard against Saint Joseph's
PHILADELPHIA -- Somehow, there seemed to be an odd symmetry to it all.
The last time the Boston College men's basketball team visited The Palestra, the City of Brotherly Love's basketball basilica, it suffered a season-ending loss against Temple in the second round of the National Invitation Tournament nine months ago.
Yesterday, playing before a crowd of 5,542, the Eagles absorbed their first loss of the season in a 67-57 setback to 12th-ranked Saint Joseph's, the same team that pinned BC with its first loss of the 2002-03 campaign.
Junior guard Delonte West led the Hawks (6-0) with a game-high 27 points on 10-for-17 shooting, and added 9 rebounds and 5 assists. His heralded backcourt mate, senior guard Jameer Nelson, chipped in 13 points, 6 rebounds, and 7 assists to become the school's all-time assist leader, with 584.
Freshman Jared Dudley led the Eagles (6-1) with 13 points and 10 rebounds, while senior Uka Agbai and freshman guard Steve Hailey each scored 11 points.
"They're quick and they're experienced," BC coach Al Skinner said of Saint Joseph's guards. "Offensively and defensively, they presented some interesting challenges for us. It was a learning experience and that's what we'll take it as. You're not going to find many teams with that much depth at the guard position that can play that aggressively."
Just as was the case in that 85-58 drubbing BC absorbed in last year's season-opener against the Hawks at Conte Forum -- when star guard Troy Bell was held to 8 points on 2-for-14 shooting -- Saint Joseph's utilized oppressive pressure, and it double-teamed Craig Smith in the low post, holding BC's 6-foot-7-inch super sophomore to a career-low 2 points on 1-for-7 shooting with 4 rebounds.
"Whenever they play against a good role-player, they seem to have a tendency to know how to stop 'em," Smith said of the Hawks. "They did a very good job on me. I tip my hat to them."
St. Joseph's 6-7 junior forward John Bryant fared no better than Smith on offense (2 points on 1-for-2 shooting with 3 rebounds), but he earned praise from coach Phil Martelli for the job he did defensively on Smith.
"The credit in this one goes to John," said Martelli. "Craig Smith's a beast. He was the second-best freshman in the Big East last year behind Carmelo Anthony, and this year his numbers are scary. The guess was, putting it mildly, that it would become a mudfight, that they'd throw it into the lane and there'd be a lot of foul shots. We knew that coming in, so we knew it was a concern."
Once Smith scored his first basket, and the Hawks denied him in the low post by extending their defense to midcourt, it ceased to be a concern, especially after the Hawks opened a 14-point lead in the first half, 34-20, on a pair of foul shots by Pat Carroll (10 points) with 1:52 to go. The Eagles didn't help themselves by missing 12 of their 34 free throw attempts, including a pair by Dudley that would've helped BC trim Saint Joseph's 36-26 halftime lead.
The Eagles, who shot 37.8 percent from the field (17 for 45) and barely avoided being shut out from the 3-point arc for the first time in three years, went 10:55 between baskets in the second half, which enabled Saint Joseph's twice to lead by as many as 16 (55-39 and 60-44). Hailey finally converted for BC on a backcourt steal from Nelson and a heavily contested transition scoop. Nelson answered with a dagger-like trey that put the game out of reach, 63-46, with 4:16 to go.
"I had a bad game. Everybody has a bad day," Smith said. "The key is do I bounce back or do I feel sorry for myself? And that's not what I'm all about."
