Miami 77, Boston College 56: "Running On Fumes"

Unlike the last meeting between Boston College and Miami, where the Eagles stuck with the 'Canes for 35 minutes before falling apart in the game's final five minutes, this one wasn't nearly as competitive. After taking a brief 16-15 lead in the first half on a Jordan Daniels three, the Hurricanes closed the half on runs of 16-1 and 31-9 to take a 21-point lead into the locker room.

The 'Canes finished with an absurd 12 threes (12-30), including nine in the first half. Malcolm Grant knocked down back-to-back threes late in the first half and Durand Scott provided the dagger at the buzzer to go into the half up 21.

This game had yet another patented stretch where BC just could not buy a bucket, a stretch of 8:08 in the first half where the Eagles didn't hit a field-goal.

BC was never really able to recover from Miami's hot first-half shooting -- 60.7 percent shooting from the floor (17-28) and 52.9 percent shooting from three (9-17). The U actually shot better from the floor in the first half than they did from the charity stripe (60 percent, 3-5).

Coach Steve Donahue, obviously, would have liked this game back.

"There are days like this where it tests you, no question,'' Donahue said. "But we beat Florida State and we're in those five games that we should've won, and I think right now, unfortunately, we're running on fumes."

Matt Humphrey led the way for the Eagles, scoring 16 points, three assists and four steals. Jordan Daniels recorded 11 points on 3-6 shooting from three/floor, while Dennis Clifford also had 11. Ryan Anderson had only 6 points but did finish with 11 boards.

It was one of BC's most disappointing losses of the season. The 'Canes started three seniors and two juniors, while BC trotted out four freshmen and a junior transfer. But while this Miami team couldn't be any different from BC in terms of age and experience, going into the half down 21 is probably not where you want to see this team with one whole regular season under their belts. After surprising both Clemson and Virginia Tech to start the season 2-1 in ACC play, the Eagles lost 11 of their last 13 games.

BC also finishes the regular season 0-8 on the road in ACC play, though four other programs -- Maryland, Virginia Tech, Georgia Tech and Wake Forest -- finished at 1-7. Tough to buy a win on the road in the ACC, I guess. Though if there's one venue in the conference where you have the best chances of winning an ACC road game, it's Miami. BC-Miami played in front of a crowd of just 3,834, an arena filled with Hurricanes seniors family members and roughly 5,000 empty seats.

The Eagles also finish 0-10 on the road this season and 1-3 in neutral games, with at least one more neutral site game to go on Thursday.

Despite the setback, the team sounds confident that they can build on this season.

"I think we've gone through almost everything you can go through,'' Anderson said. "We've played more basketball than most sophomores in college have played, so I think we're really confident and we have a good foundation that we've built this year and we're going to be fine moving forward."

Rule of 10 tracker. After doing a decent job of limiting the turnovers the past few games, the Eagles committed 17 turnovers in this one. They also fell one short of the team's goal of hitting 10 threes (9-29). BC was able to limit the Hurricanes to just five offensive rebounds, and even won the overall rebounding battle 30-28. But that's misleading as Miami couldn't miss in the first half and didn't give themselves an opportunity to pull down any boards on the offensive glass.

Player of the game. Matt Humphrey. By default?

ACC Tournament. Carolina is locked into the no. 1 seed, Duke the 2 and Florida State the three. Maryland (8), Georgia Tech (11) and BC (12) are also locked in.

Here's how this week's ACC Tournament matchups are shaping up:

No. 8 Maryland vs. No. 9 VIrginia Tech / Wake Forest -- noon
No. 5 Clemson / Miami / N.C. State vs. No. 12 Boston College -- 2:30 PM
No. 7 Clemson / Miami / N.C. State / Virginia vs. No. 10 Virginia Tech / Wake Forest -- 7 PM
No. 6 Clemson / Miami / N.C. State / Virginia vs. No. 11 Georgia Tech -- 9:30 PM

No. 1 North Carolina vs. 8/9 winner
No. 2 Duke vs. 7/10 winner
No. 3 Florida State vs. 6/11 winner
No. 4 Miami / N.C. State / Virginia vs. 5/12 winner

BC's first-round matchup will tip at approximately 2:30 PM on ESPNU / ACC Network.