Boston College Men’s Basketball Drops 79-78 OT Game to Hartford

This game was easily the sloppiest the Eagles have played all year. The absence of Steffon Mitchell, who was listed as day to day and did not dress, was certainly felt defensively. The Hawks took advantage of the defensive lapse and routinely found the open man at the three-point line or cutting to the basket. Offensively, the Eagles combined for eleven first half turnovers and showed some poor ball movement and shot selection. Wynston Tabbs left the game after ten minutes seeming to tweak his knee, and Herren and Chatman didn’t contribute much from the backcourt, combining to shoot 4-14 from the field. Jairus Hamilton did a decent job on the boards but matched that with six turnovers.

With everything going wrong for the Eagles, they were lucky to head thalftime with only a 3-point deficit. If you were thinking that the Eagles would come out with a burst in the second half to start to pull away, it would not be the case. The same problems plagued the Eagles who looked up to find themselves still down 6 halfway through the second period. They stuck around by the grace of Ky Bowman, who would end with 44 points and 10 rebounds. With just under four minutes in the game, Chris Herren Jr. hit a timely corner three that would spark a frantic final four minutes of play. Despite securing a 69-66 lead with 8 seconds on the clock, the Eagles couldn’t lock up the win in regulation. Jason Dunne converted three free throws to tie the game off a Jordan Chatman foul and send the game to overtime.

After opening the overtime period with a quick three, BC quickly fell behind and could not recover. The Eagles would end the day with 19 turnovers in a 79-78 OT loss. It’s hard to imagine this team getting any ACC wins with play like this. Hopefully the coaching staff can figure some things out quickly because the competition is about to take a turn for the tougher with a trip to Virginia Tech on Saturday and #4 UVA coming to Conte the following week.