BC thwarts invasion

Eagles successfully defend their house

Not long after Josh Southern sank the free throws that sealed Boston College's 81-76 win over Providence College yesterday, Tyrese Rice grabbed Reggie Jackson and mumbled in his ear.

Jackson had missed two free throws with 36 seconds left in the game. Even after the win was assured, Rice could see the missed shots bothered Jackson.

Rice picks on Jackson in practice, when they play game situations and foul at the end. He'll foul Jackson. Jackson will knock them down.

Then Rice will say something like, "It's easy for you to hit them in practice, but you can't hit in the game."

"Everybody knows I'm just playing around," said Rice (game-high 20 points, seven assists). "But, in a sense, I'm still serious and he knows that."

This game wasn't just another Atlantic Coast Conference tuneup. Providence essentially orchestrated a Conte Forum invasion. The 6,880 fans - mostly Friars fans who wouldn't be shut out by a snowstorm - comprised the building's largest crowd all year.

There was a point early in the second half where Corey Raji had to knock down a pair of free throws to quiet his own building. The Friars were making highlight after highlight, from an inbound alley-oop from Jeff Xavier (team-high 16 points) to Geoff McDermott (8 points, 11 rebounds) to a two-handed slam by Weyinmi Efejuku (13 points).

It was hard to tell whose gym it was as "this is our house" rained down from PC sections.

It was as insulting as it sounded. "That's personal," said Southern (9 points, 7 of 8 on free throws). "I mean, when you come in our house and think you can take over, that's like an incentive to come out and play even harder."

Before the game, BC coach Al Skinner wrote on the board: "Take care of our house."

Even though the Eagles were undefeated at home, Skinner said, "this is really the first time that we're faced with an opponent that could possibly challenge that."

The Friars had won the previous two meetings.

"You can't create that urgency," Skinner said. "Providence College offers something. It's a Big East team. It's a New England rivalry and the fact of the matter is they've won the last couple games."

The atmosphere was so frantic it almost made you forget one detail: BC never trailed.

When PC scored, BC answered. When PC pressed, BC broke it. When PC rallied, BC killed it.

"There was a lot of PC fans," Skinner said. "But that's fine. It's our baskets. They could do all the shouting they wanted. The fact of the matter is these are our baskets."

The Eagles missed 11 free throws on those baskets yesterday (24 of 35), and on the season they've shot just 66 percent from the line as a team.

But seeing Southern knock down five of his last six was encouraging.

"A lot of guys had an opportunity to make free throws tonight," he said. "When you have a young team, sometimes you have to go through that experience to be able to know what it takes to make those free throws."

So, after seeing the way Jackson responded to missing his shots, Rice had to offer the freshman support.

"I just talked to him. I told him just keep your head up. Fix your body language. Fix your facial expression. So what, you missed those free throws. Those free throws were a minute and a half ago. There's no need for you to worry about those free throws."

The point was simply to learn from it. "We've been very fortunate," Skinner said. "We've been winning, and we've been learning along the way."

Rice said, "We're definitely fortunate to do that, because last year we were learning but we weren't winning much. It's only going to help us in the future."

Julian Benbow can be reached at jbenbow@globe.com.