BC 76, Maryland 72 — For now, season saved

For now.

In a game the Boston College Eagles absolutely had to have, they beat the Maryland Terrapins at home on Saturday afternoon by four points, raising their record to 16-9 (6-5). As one of the supposed “last four in” the NCAA Tournament picture, their chances of withstanding the turbulence of the dreaded bubble got a little bit better. At the very least, they didn’t get any worse.

BC needed an appearance from star player Reggie Jackson, who had been slumping in the previous several games. Did he ever show up: 31 points and 8 rebounds, with the points being a career-high. The next closest Eagle was Corey Raji, coming off of the bench with 12. Joe Trapani had ten and John Cahill, the walk-on wonder, nailed three triples to end with nine points.

The Eagles did a pretty good job in shooting the basketball for the most part, waking themselves up to go 48% from the floor and hitting ten more threes against the Terps. In two games against Maryland this season, they hammered them for 23 baskets from behind the arc, and keep in mind that Maryland had the second-lowest percentage of threes allowed in the conference coming into today’s game.

What’s surprising is that a) Boston College managed to outrebound Maryland, 33-32, and b) that they did a pretty good job overall in limiting Jordan Williams. On the former, there was a good bit of hustle on the boards, particularly by Jackson, Trapani, and Raji. On one such offensive rebound, Raji collected it and laid it back in the hoop for an easy bucket, helping the Eagles maintain their advantage over Maryland. As for the latter, Jordan Williams had twelve points, but six of them came from the free throw line. Considering how he lit BC up for 27 points in the College Park game, they did a much better job handling him today. A lot of that scoring was compensated for by Pe’Shon Howard, however, who went up from zero points in December’s game to 14 in today’s.

There is no doubt, however, that the game was sloppy. BC committed 15 turnovers while the Terps had 14; the turnover has been an issue throughout much of ACC play, and probably will be for as long as BC touches the court this season. In the end, it comes down to limiting them, and taking advantage of the ones the other team gives you; Maryland outscored the Eagles 19-17 off of turnovers, but BC did just enough to get by.

The implications of this game are significant; had the Eagles lost today, they’d be at ten losses with several tough games yet to come, meaning their chances of an at-large bid would be all but over. Instead, they found a way to come back from their halftime deficit and win, giving them a crucial conference win against a decent team. Furthermore, with 16 wins, they have surpassed last season’s dismal mark of 15, so at least we know that no matter what, this year has been an improvement.

We have a week until BC’s next game down at the Dean Dome, so settle in, enjoy the Beanpot, and watch the rest of the bubble beat the crap out of each other like Kirk and Spock did on that episode of Star Trek.