RECAP: Orange Outpace Eagles in Second Half, Syracuse Outlasts Boston College 75-61

Even through the improvement of the past couple of games, the Boston College Eagles have not been able to shake the fact that they are a two half team.

Invariably the Eagles punch above their weight in the first half, going toe to toe with even the best in the ACC.

And then, inevitably, the second half happens and the Eagles let the game slip through their hands.

The trend continued Sunday afternoon, as the Eagles, after a competitive first half, let the game slip away in the second and lost to the Syracuse Orange 75-61. The loss was the Eagles twelfth straight, tying a school record for futility.

"I thought offensively we executed very, very well," BC coach Jim Christian said. "I thought we got the ball where we wanted to go, we got shots that we wanted, from the guys we wanted shooting them. Offensively we were terrific, I thought, for the most part, playing against an unbelievably good defensive team, especially after what they did to us the first time. Our problem was defensively, second half. We gave three or four, what we call walk in threes, where they are just in rhythm, no pressure, by two or three different guys, and you can't do that."

The three point shot worked very well for the Orange. Syracuse made 11 three point shots in the game, including a run where the Orange outscored the Eagles 11-3, with nine of those points coming from three point range.

A bright spot for the Eagles was the ACC play emergence of Matt Milon. Milon, who has scored all of 33 points in ACC play, didn't match his conference point total before the game, but he came pretty close, scoring 25 points coming off the bench.

"Matt obviously tonight shot the ball extremely well," Christian said. "It was a good game for him, because he's such a good shooter, and he was really aware of where he could get shots, more so than he has been. We worked hard on moving to certain spots when the ball got to the middle, and he was there every time. He's a good shooter. [It was] good to see that."

Along with Milon's 25, 20 of which were scored in the first half, Dennis Clifford contributed 16 points and eight rebounds to the BC cause, falling just short of his second straight double-double.

Yet the story for the rest of the Eagles is a story of futility. The rest of the team added just 20 points. Without additional scorers, the Eagles couldn't keep up with the Orange in the second half, despite having a lead with 15:43 left.

The loss dropped the Eagles to 7-18 and 0-12 in ACC play. BC will travel to Clemson Wednesday evening in its next contest.