BC Falls To Duke 75-59

It’s far too early to say Saturday’s matchup against Duke was a possible “statement game” for BC, but when the Eagles opened ACC play inside the Cameron Indoor Stadium, the team had a chance to show the rest of the league it plans on being competitive in the conference.

Boston College may have lost the game 75-59, but the game was a bit closer at times than the score would indicate.

Boston College is now 5-4 overall after back-to-back losses to Nebraska and then the Blue Devils, but there’s some reason for optimism over in Chestnut Hill.

CJ Penha led the way with 16 points with Jaeden Zackery dropping 14. Devin McGlockton was also in double digits with 10 points. McGlockton also had seven rebounds and as a team, the Eagles out-rebounded Duke 33-32.

Both teams had a poor night shooting the three, with BC going just 5-for-22 while Duke was 8-for-21. The ball definitely needs to move a bit more for BC, as the Eagles had only seven team assists while the Blue Devils had 19. Perhaps the best stat of the night for Earl Grant’s team was the 22 second chance points, with Duke only having four.

"I think that has a lot to do with effort. I thought we played really hard,” Grant said postgame. “There were some things we could do better, but our effort was there. To get 22 points on the backboard, we had guys going really hard at the offensive rebounds. Certainly was proud of that effort."

Grant also talked about the difference in shot quality from the first half to the second half, but also acknowledged that Duke’s athleticism played a part in that too.”I thought our decision-making at the rim was better in the second half than it was in the first half,” said Grant. “You have to have a plan when you drive it in that paint. There’s a lot of athletes coming to try to get a block. I thought we did a great job of making that adjustment."

Boston College trailed 35-23 at the half, due in large part to a 1-for-10 clip from the three point line and Duke grabbing 16 defensive rebounds to BC’s 10. Still, the game never felt out of hand, even in the wild atmosphere that is Duke home games.

There’s also the whole trying to preserve Prince Aligbe as he eases into action. Aligbe played just four minutes, going 0-for-2 from the field with one of those a missed three pointer.

"I had a feeling that it was important for him to get five to six minutes, obviously so maybe he can get 10 to 12 in the next game that he plays. I told him to go out and play hard and just try to do the best that he could,” said Grant.

The 40-36 second half is a good jumping off point for a young Eagles team that will consistently have to take the good with the bad this season. Boston College takes on UNH at home this Tuesday (7 PM) before heading back out on the road for a tough test against Villanova. Stonehill and Virginia Tech.