Despite loss, Eagles remain first-rate
VILLANOVA, Pa. -- When the Boston College men's basketball team lost its first game, 68-65, at Notre Dame Feb. 8, the Eagles clung to at least one consolation on their way out of the Joyce Center: They were still in first place in the Big East.
So, in essence, the Eagles didn't lose ground in their bid to clinch the conference's regular-season title and the top seed for the Big East tournament at Madison Square Garden in New York March 9-12.
"Nothing has changed," said BC coach Al Skinner, after his third-ranked Eagles absorbed their second loss of the season, 76-70, at No. 23 Villanova Wednesday night before a Pavilion capacity crowd of 6,500. "We're still in first place."
Despite the Villanova setback, the Eagles are a game ahead of Connecticut (18-6, 10-3) in the conference. A win in tomorrow's home game against struggling Seton Hall, which dropped to 11-13 (3-10) with a 67-54 loss to visiting Providence Wednesday night, coupled with a UConn loss at Pittsburgh (18-6, 8-5) tomorrow afternoon would assure the Eagles a share of the regular-season title.
"We've got a couple of losses, and there's a lot of teams who've got a lot more losses than we do, nationally and within our league," said Skinner. "The fact is we're not winning any games when the other team shoots 41 free throws. It's just that simple."
Even if the Eagles were to stumble against Pittsburgh Monday and at Rutgers March 5, and finish tied with UConn and/or Syracuse, BC would earn the No. 1 seed in the Big East tourney by virtue of its wins over the Huskies and the Orange.
And that, at least, was something the Eagles could hang their hat on after dropping to 22-2 overall (11-2 conference). So if the first loss stung because it snapped BC's 20-game winning streak, then did the second one hurt?
"Yeah, this one hurts a little bit more," said sophomore forward Jared Dudley, who tallied a career-high 36 points in BC's 67-66 victory over Villanova Jan. 19 at Conte Forum, but was held to 15 points on 4-for-11 shooting Wednesday night. "It's on the road -- both were on the road. But after coming so close . . . coming down here and fighting back to be right there at the end of the game, it hurts a little bit."
The Eagles twice pulled within 1 point (65-64 and 67-66) after trailing by 13 (53-40) in the second half. Villanova, which connected on 36 of 41 foul shots, went almost nine minutes in the second half without a field goal, but more than made up for it at the line by making 8 of 10 free throws in that stretch.
"They're as talented as any team in this league," Skinner said of a Villanova team that played without sophomore point guard Mike Nardi but still pulled off its second upset in as many home games against a ranked conference opponent.
"I'm not at all surprised. There's no walks in the park [in the Big East]. Their starting point guard goes out and their backup point guard [Kyle Lowry, 11 points] comes in and does a nice job for them. They've got all the ingredients and they're obviously starting to put it together."
With three regular-season games left, that will be BC's mandate as well, to put it together.
"We had a chance, maybe, to get some separation [in the conference standings] but it didn't happen," Skinner said. "We wanted to try and go out to win, but we weren't expecting to run away from the league. We just made things a little bit tighter."
