Hurricanes put Eagles in a foul mood
Missed chances, calls hurt hosts
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After finding a lane through which to drive, raising up over two defenders, going hard to the rim, and receiving contact from both, only to find out that not only did he miss the layup but he was the one assessed the foul, Tyrese Rice couldn't tell you where he tossed his headband.
"No idea," said Boston College's star guard. "In the stands somewhere."
The frustration wasn't exactly hiding after seeing the basket that would have cut BC's deficit to Miami to 1 at 72-71, but Rice said later that there were more things than that one call that broke the 17th-ranked Eagles' rally. Starting with defensive lapses that let Jack McClinton shake loose for a 3-pointer and an all-too-easy layup, or brain cramps under the basket that let Dwayne Collins grab one of his five offensive rebounds at a time when BC couldn't have needed to gain possession more.
But the foul on Rice stuck out.
Eagles coach Al Skinner was stuck on it after the game. He had seen offensive fouls before. He spent a lot of time during BC's 77-71 loss last night at Conte Forum talking with officials about what was and wasn't a foul.
In Skinner's mind, there was no explaining the call on Rice.
"I'm going to have to get an interpretation for what an offensive foul is," Skinner said. "I don't understand it. I think my understanding is different from what I saw this evening. I've got to figure out what it is so I can coach my guys better."
Collins scored 11 of his 13 points from the free throw line. He treated the paint like it was a Japanese city and he was a building-crushing movie monster. He crashed into all of the Eagles' big men, from Josh Southern to Tyler Roche to a less-than-100 percent Corey Raji (pulled groin), who each were whistled for four fouls.
"He works hard," Skinner said of Collins. "I'm not going to take anything from his efforts and what he does. If they feel like that's what's occurring then they call it."
As frustrated as Skinner was, he said the officiating wasn't the be-all and end-all of what could have been the Eagles' second conference win, but wound up their second straight loss overall.
"It's a bang-bang call," said Rice, who led BC (13-4, 1-1 ACC) with 21 points on 6-for-18 shooting. "It could have went either way. If it goes our way, maybe the game's different. Maybe it's not. But it didn't and we still had to fight through, which we did. We just couldn't get the stops that we needed."
Coming into the game, Skinner said he didn't want one bad loss - last Wednesday to Harvard - to turn into two. But nothing about this loss was the same as the one to the Crimson.
From the tip, the Eagles looked like a team with a pulse. The crowd (7,623) was as large as it's been all season at Conte, and even though at times it was only as loud as a
It was an atmosphere that couldn't have been more different than the one from three nights earlier, which didn't surprise Miami coach Frank Haith, who was expecting the BC team that stunned North Carolina a week ago.
"You don't go and win down at the Dean Dome and not be a good team," said Haith, whose team improved to 12-3, 1-1. "We felt like we were going to get their best effort. They played hard. It was a hard-fought game."
And thinking back on late-game instances when his team pulled to within 5 points, or 3 points, only to miss layups, Skinner readily admitted it was a game that came down to execution, as much as it did officiating.
"We got the shots we wanted," he said. "Got it in the position we wanted. We've got to complete the play. I'm pretty confident that some good things are going to happen for us and we're going to continue to head in the right direction."
Julian Benbow can be reached at jbenbow@globe.com. 
