Providence 64, BC 57: Signs of Life

A step in the right direction appears to have been taken in Rhode Island tonight.

Boston College basketball was defeated by Providence on Thursday night, 64-57, but they hung around for the entire game and played competitively. Boston College is nowhere near as big and physical as the Friars, but they battled, particularly on the defensive end, and appeared to have a certain level of confidence on the court.

Two Eagles players in particular who had strong games were Ryan Anderson and Jordan Daniels. Anderson had his best game as an Eagle yet with 16 points, while Daniels, finally getting a start, managed seven points, but he ran the offense well. I absolutely want to see Daniels starting on Sunday in BC’s next game.

One thing that appeared to help BC was limiting the liberal substitutions we had seen from Steve Donahue in earlier games.  Only nine Eagles touched the court tonight, and four of BC’s five starters got 33+ minutes.  I would like to believe this helped team consistency.

Offensive rebounds continue to kill the Eagles, who allowed fourteen of them tonight. One could tell early on that BC wasn’t going to be able to crash the boards with the impact of Providence, but they did a fine job of not letting Providence turn it into a huge advantage in points. The Eagles did, however, get better in this department over the course of the game as well.

If you’re a Boston College fan, in spite of the end result of the game, you have to at least be somewhat pleased with what you saw tonight. The game started out sloppy for both teams, but the Eagles did something tonight that they had not really done in any game so far: establish a rhythm and play with confidence. A few weeks ago, BC might have lost this game by 20, but they mitigated their rebounding and shooting woes with respectable defense and making some other big shots when they needed them.

It wasn’t a perfect effort by the Eagles by any stretch, but it was a legitimately good try. It was probably the best overall game they’ve played to this point, despite the box score not being pretty. This was the closest BC has come yet to playing a full 40 minute game, and there are few complaints on my end.

In fact, don’t even pay attention to the box score; pay attention to the effort. BC played with it tonight for virtually the entire game, and that is the best news we’ve gotten yet.

The Eagles’ next game is on Sunday evening at home against Stony Brook.