BC can't overcome cold spell
SYRACUSE, N.Y. -- The Boston College men's basketball team encountered some tough sledding on and off the court in its winter expedition to Syracuse, the Frozen Tundra of the Big East, for yesterday's conference meeting against the defending national champions.
Mindful of the travel problems the football team had in October in arriving here at 3 a.m. for a noon kickoff (and a 39-14 loss), BC coach Al Skinner knew it was a bad omen for his Eagles when the team's flight from Boston's Logan Airport was canceled Friday afternoon because of weather-related mechanical problems, forcing the team to take a 4 1/2-hour bus ride from BC's campus.
"Believe me, it was in the back of my mind," Skinner said after yesterday's 96-73 loss to the 17th-ranked Orangemen before a Carrier Dome crowd of 22,075. "No question, everyone was thinking about that."
BC's first conference loss of the season, though, had little to do with its travel problems, or the subzero temperatures that greeted the team when it arrived here Friday evening around 6 p.m.
It had more to do with Hakim Warrick's 19 points, 10 of which fueled a 21-0 run in the first half that gave Syracuse a whopping 49-29 halftime lead, and the tough-minded 3-point shooting of sophomore Gerry McNamara, who scored 13 of his team-high 26 points over a span of 3 minutes 21 seconds in the second half that helped the Orangemen (11-1, 2-0) stretch their lead to 82-61 after the Eagles had rallied to within 61-55 with 10:25 to go.
"This is a more diverse team in comparison to last year where Carmelo [Anthony] was the main cog," Skinner said. "Now they can attack you in a number of different ways and so it forces you to be really focused on defense."
Craig Smith led the Eagles (11-3, 1-1) with a game-high 27 points and nine rebounds, hitting 13 of 22 shots and 1 of 4 from the foul line. "How does he take 22 shots and only get four foul shots?" asked Skinner, clearly disturbed by the stat.
BC freshmen Jared Dudley (who was 11 for 11 from the line) and Sean Marshall (3 of 8 on 3-pointers) each had 15 points while Uka Agbai chipped in 12.
However, Smith, the hero of BC's 72-64 win at Georgetown Tuesday, squandered several chances in the second half to get BC inside of 6 points. He missed two field goals and a pair of foul shots and committed two turnovers (on a strip by Josh Pace and a travel call) over a critical four-minute stretch after the Eagles had opened the second half with a 21-7 run to pull within 56-50.
"Things just didn't go our way," Smith said. "That was kind of tough. We had a chance and I kind of blew it."
It short-circuited a BC comeback in a game that looked hopelessly out of reach by halftime.
"Everybody thought the game was over at halftime, but these are tough games," said Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim, whose 664th career victory tied him with John Wooden for 19th place among the NCAA's all-time-winningest coaches. It was an accomplishment that was spoiled only by Boeheim's scolding of a Syracuse student reporter who asked about the coach's decision to switch defenses from zone to man-to-man.
"Don't try to coach this team, please," Boeheim said. "I'm coaching the team, you write about it. If we're going to change defenses, we're going to use different defenses. Don't question about which one it is, or which one it isn't, ever, OK?"
Not that Boeheim had to do much coaching, anyway, certainly not with McNamara directing the action on the floor.
"When we played him, our intention was not to lose him," said Skinner, whose team paid dearly for losing sight of Syracuse's superb sophomore.
McNamara, who hit 8 of 15 shots (including 6 of 9 from the 3-point arc), shut the door on the Eagles when he scored 13 points in a decisive 21-6 run, splashing a pair of back-to-back 3-pointers for good measure to make it 82-61.
"If I threw up a hook shot from halfcourt, it was going in," McNamara said. "That's how I felt."
By then, it was evident it was time for BC to warm up the bus for its frigid trek back to Boston to begin a three-game homestand.
Asked if he would be happy to see Syracuse disappear from sight in the rearview mirror, Skinner said, "We haven't had a lot of success here, but I like good college environments. I think it's entertaining, I think it's something for our guys to get excited about.
"I've got no problems walking into anybody else's building and playing them. We just didn't have the success we wanted to have today." 