Boston College was defeated by Nebraska 71-62 Wednesday night, but the bigger story is a non-contact knee injury graduate transfer Teddy Hawkins suffered early in the game. Hawkins attempted a jump stop at the freethrow line, but his left knee landed awkwardly and Hawkins immediately went down in pain. He managed to limp his way to the locker room, a good sign, but did not return to the game and was on crutches the rest of the night. We should receive more information on the injury when Hawkins gets back to Boston and the team can properly diagnose him, but things aren’t looking good. It’s unclear how bad the injury is, but we could could be looking at an injury where Hawkins is out for a few weeks at minimum.

Hawkins has been the anchor for the Eagles on both sides of the ball this season. His offensive consistency provides much relief for guards Ky Bowman and Jerome Robinson, while his leadership and communication calms the young BC defense. A major injury to Hawkins would be a devastating blow to the Eagles. Hopefully the MRI comes back clean.

To make matters worse, the Eagles were also without starting small forward Jordan Chatman in this game, who is dealing with a shoulder injury suffered against Providence. It’s not known how serious the injury is, but this already-thin BC squad cannot sustain a long term injury to two starters.

Now getting to the actual game. Unfortunately, we saw a lot of the same issues that plagued BC against Providence, and despite a noble second-half rally by the shorthanded Eagles, BC is still making too many mistakes on both sides of the floor.

BC got going early with Popovic, who hit 2 shots in the first 4 minutes against the much bigger Tshimanga. Last year’s Popovic didn’t have the speed to get around a guy with such size, but he continues to impress offensively this season.

But defensively, the Eagles got off to a rocky start. Down just 8-6 early in the game, Christian decided to implement a 2-3 matchup zone and BC immediately gave up 3 triples. Nebraska ended up hitting 6 threes in the first 10 minutes of the game, and they were heading into this game shooting just 34% from three. As we saw in the Providence game, the BC bigs can’t rotate fast enough to guard the shooters, and a simple swing of the ball will likely find a wide open three in the corner. That happened a lot in the first half, as the Huskers shot 8-13 from three, and seemingly all of them were wide open.

To make matters worse, BC’s perimeter defense continues to struggle with speedy guards, leading to easy dribble-drives which in turn led to more open threes for the Huskers. Ky Bowman especially has struggled with his on-ball defense this season, and it seems like Glynn Watson Jr. was getting around him with ease. The Eagles also struggle communicating defensively, especially with Chatman and Hawkins out, meaning the young guys blew a lot of rotations that led to easy buckets for Nebraska. Obviously, it’s hard to draw any big conclusions from this game, but the Eagles continue to be abysmal defending the perimeter and let Nebraska look like the Houston Rockets in the first half.

Due to all the triples, BC was forced to go with Vin Baker Jr. early, but he just doesn’t have the muscle to be a legitimate threat on either side of the ball. Playing 24 minutes in this game, Baker took all 6 of his shots from beyond the arc, but finished just 1-6. Most of them were open, he just couldn’t knock them down, and being so skinny, defenders aren’t afraid to let him drive. If Hawkins or Chatman misses significant time, Baker could be in for a rough freshman year. It’s not his fault, but at this point he needs to finish growing and gain some mass before he will be a valuable rotation piece.

Luckily, BC had just 1 turnover in the first 10 minutes of the game, and it was a Ky Bowman travel so it’s nice to see them cut down on the live ball turnovers. Unfortunately, that didn’t continue, as BC finished with 15 turnovers in this game, leading to 15 points for the Huskers. Obviously, the Eagles had a lot of freshmen playing, so sloppiness is to be expected, but BC has to hold itself to a higher standard if they want to be taken seriously against elite opponents. If the Eagles are outmanned and outmatched, the last thing they need to be doing is giving away free possessions.

All in all, the first half was a mess, especially after the injury to Hawkins, and the Huskers went into halftime up 44-36, shooting 15-26 from the field and 8-13 from deep. Even with two starters out, 44 first half points is unacceptable, and there is no way BC can win on the road with these kind of defensive performances. However, despite all of the bad, the Eagles were down just 8 points due to some solid offensive play by Jerome Robinson, who had 13 points, 3 assists, and 0 turnovers in the period.

With all the injuries, it would’ve been easy for BC to just give up and count its losses. The odds of them coming back on the road were slim, and it would’ve made sense to save your men for the next one. But the Eagles fought in the second half and actually almost won, so I commend them for their fight. The bench mob showed a lot of heart in this game, and the defense was marginally better, but the shots just didn’t fall.

For all the defensive versatility and rebounding that Mitchell provides, his offensive game has a ways to go before he can ever be a reliable creator. Once Hawkins went down, BC’s only player in the frontcourt with the ability to create for himself was Popovic. As a result, Nebraska was able to hunker down and let BC shoot threes or eventually turn it over. Mitchell, for all his hustle, isn’t the most consistent three point shooter, and he finished just 1-4 from deep on the night.

With Hawkins out, JC Reyes played big minutes in this one, and he actually continues to impress, at least in small spurts. Finishing 4-4 from the field in 17 minutes, Reyes and Bowman ran a few beautiful pick-and-rolls early in the second half that helped the Eagles claw back in this one. Reyes did a nice job taking advantage of Tshimanga and had a nice righty hook and grabbed a loose ball for another easy layup.

Avery Wilson also made the most of time on the court. In just two minutes, Wilson hit a deep two from the right corner and dove on the floor for a steal as well. Despite missing the entire fall, he seems to have gotten in shape fast and his football-player-physique could provide some nice physicality down the road. Obviously, Coach Christian doesn’t seem to trust him too much, and it remains to be seen if he can effectively run an offense, but in his two minutes, he provided exactly what you want--energy. Ironically, the only Eagles who finished with a positive plus/minus tonight were Wilson and Reyes.

Down 49-40 with 17:53 to go in the game, BC put on a nice defensive stretch and forced the Huskers to miss 8 shots in a row and held them scoreless for nearly 6 minutes, cutting it to 49-47. Unfortunately, every time the Eagles looked like they were about to tie it up, Nebraska would hit a tough shot and build the lead.

After a stellar first half, Jerome Robinson just simply couldn’t find the bottom of the basket in the second period, hitting just 2 of his 11 shots. He didn’t get much help from Ky Bowman either, who finished the night 5-13 from the field and 1-6 from deep with 4 turnovers. Watson Jr. is an aggressive on-ball defender for the Huskers, and Bowman just didn’t look himself offensively. His jumper has been a disappointment this season, and tonight wasn’t any different.

Still, the Eagles found themselves down 59-57 with 7 minutes left in the game, but turnovers would rear their ugly head, and BC wouldn’t score for the next 5 minutes, giving up a 12-0 run that sealed their fate--and the night ended 71-62.

For the Eagles, this road game was not a pleasant experience. After some travel issues getting to Lincoln, the Eagles return home both insulted and injured. But despite the injuries, the Eagles still could have won this game, but you can’t win when you shoot 4-22 from deep and cough the ball up 15 times.

I liked the fight tonight, and BC certainly showed a lot of heart, but at the end of the day, heart wasn’t enough, and the Eagles fall to 5-3 on the year with another road game at Hartford on Saturday.

I wouldn’t be surprised if we don’t see Chatman or Hawkins in the next game, meaning the young players will continue to play heavy minutes. BC lost to Hartford at home last season, and they’re heading into Saturday’s game banged up, so expect another tough one.