Boston College Men’s Basketball vs. Sacred Heart: 73-53 Final Score

The night didn’t start out great for the Eagles on either side of the ball. SHU was much more aggressive early, driving and drawing fouls while BC was content to settle for outside shots. Jim Christian was forced to call an early timeout as the Eagles quickly got in a 13-5 hole. The defense looked much sharper out of the timeout, pressuring Sacred Heart across the half court line, pulling them out of their rhythym and drawing multiple offensive fouls from the Pioneers. The strong defense ignited the BC offense into a 10 pt. run, featuring back-to-back 3 pointers by Deontae Hawkins. They fell behind again as Jerome Robinson struggled to get buckets to fall, opening the night 0-5 from the floor. After overcoming two separate 8 point defects, BC drew back within 1 entering halftime.

BC came out hot to start the second half and began to build a lead. Ky Bowman racked 5 quick points to start the half, with a 3 followed by a strong dunk. Steffon Mitchell continued to look impressive on both sides of the floor and showed himself capable of driving to the basket for some easy points. The BC defense came alive in the second half as well and the Eagles forced turnovers as the SHU offense began to falter. Bowman came up with a steal at halfcourt that he was able to convert into a 3-pointer to give the Eagles a 50-37 lead.

Robinson’s shooting woes continued, culminating in a play where he beat his defender on a beautiful crossover and couldn’t finish the layup. He hit his first and only bucket 10 minutes into the second half with a 3 to put the Eagles up 18. Robinson finished the night shooting 1 for 14. Fortunately, the Eagles offense made up the scoring difference, with Hawkins carrying the majority of the load (22 points, 8 rebounds), and Bowman (14 points, 7 assists) and Mitchell (13 points, 9 rebounds) pitching in.

BC hits the road for the next 2 games. They will take on Texas Tech next at noon on Saturday at Mohegan Sun.