RECAP: Boston College Basketball Embarrassed By Notre Dame Fighting Irish 82-54

One look at Eli Carter's spot on the stat sheet told a story of abject futility that was mirrored by his compatriots on the Boston College Eagles basketball team Thursday night.

Carter took 14 tries from the field against Notre Dame. Only four went in the basket.

It would be an easy judgement to blame Carter for the Eagles' 82-54 trouncing by the Notre Dame Fighting Irish. Yet, the rest of the score sheet tells a story of futility shared by the Eagles. Jerome Robinson and Carter shot a combined 7-for-24 from the field, with the entire team shooting 17-for-51. The Eagles surrendered 42 points in the paint to the Irish and, perhaps most damning of all, let up 26 points off turnovers.

"I have to apologize for that," BC coach Jim Christian said. "That's not how our teams play. That's not how we have been playing. I thought coming out of the Duke game we had made some strides because we competed. We didn't play great, but we competed. We obviously let missed shots tonight affect overall effort, and we have to change that."

Carter was the personification of the Eagles' shooting woes. After gaining five quick points before the first media timeout, he would not have another point to his name until the 9:25 mark of the second half.

"[Carter] shouldn't have to be a leader, to be quite honest with you," Christian said. "He's a fifth-year player. He's got 15 games here. The guys who should be the leaders are the young guys. They should be trying to change the culture of our program, and I thought collectively as a group they did nothing to do that tonight."

Eliminating Garland Owens, Dennis Clifford, and Carter, the first-year players who took the floor Thursday night shot a combined 9-for-29 and combined for seven turnovers.

The Irish, who have been scrutinized for defensive play held the Eagles to 54 points, roughly 15 points below the Irish opponents points per game average.

"[The Irish] are obviously focused on their defense, they've been getting some criticism on it," Christian said. "But the way we played tonight, and I'd love to give Notre Dame credit, but we played awful. And I'm giving them full credit. Notre Dame is a great team, they have great leadership…those guys were a game away from the Final Four, that's why, because they have high character guys who when they had a little bit of adversity, got their team together and were not going to let them lose the game. And when we hit adversity, we became disjointed."

The Eagles fell to 7-8 and 0-2 in ACC play. The game was the fourth contest that BC was held to less than 60 points.

The Eagles are next in action Wed. Jan. 13 at the Carrier Dome against the Syracuse Orange.