North Carolina 79, Boston College 68: Eagles Run Out Of Gas In Second Half

Boston College played very well in the first half, holding a lead for most of it and never allowing a UNC lead of more than 3. In the first half Olivier Hanlan lead all scorers with 15 points and he drew several personal fouls on UNC with dribble penetration. The half ended with UNC and BC tied at 36. North Carolina clearly had more talent than BC on the inside with Clifford being outmuscled continuously and Eddie Odio being the primary help off the bench. John Cain Carney also got minutes; Will Magarity or even KC Caudill would have helped against the UNC bigs, but both were on the bench in suits dealing with injuries. Magarity is dealing with a concusion so his return is uncertain.

The second half was not as well-played by BC as fatigue set in and UNC controlled the game around the basket.

Foul trouble for UNC certainly played a factor in the second half. Nate Britt picked up his fourth foul with 13:17 to play, sending Dmitri Batten to the line for 3 shots. However, Batten only hit one of three free throws and UNC dominated BC from the free throw line at that point in the game. For the game though, UNC eventually got very cold from the line and BC improved so that for the game UNC shot 20 for 27 compared to BC's 13 for 19.

In a key spot with with 10 minutes to play, UNC stretched their lead to 14 points but Hanlan and Heckmann hit back-to-back 3's, sandwiching a UNC field goal to cut the lead to 10 and prevent the game from getting out of reach. Then BC trailed by 7 at the 4 minute timeout with the ball where a Clifford dunk cut the lead to 5. However, 5 would prove to be the closest BC would cut the lead to and they would lose by 11 after BC missed all their 3-point attempts in the last 5 minutes of the game.

After scoring a season-high 28 against Notre Dame, Hanlan set a new season-high with 30. Hanlan's ability to dribble penetrate and get to the line played a huge factor in Boston College having a chance to win the game against the Tarheels. Hanlan finished 8-9 from the free throw line and 10-20 from the field. Aaron Brown was the second leading scorer as per usual with 18, and no other Eagles finished in double digits. BC only went 8 deep and the bench only scored 4 points, compared to UNC going 10 players deep despite dealing with injuries of their own, and their bench scored 13 points.

Because of BC's inability to stop UNC inside, UNC only attempted 5 3-point shots. Marcus Paige's ACC record streak of 13 straight games with multiple 3's made came to an end as he only hit one. At least BC did not become part of the record books in that respect.

Next up for the Eagles: Syracuse at home Wednesday at 7:00 p.m.