A better BC sports weekend

Certainly better than bad-news-laden last weekend.

The good news:

Friday: Eagles beat UMass on the road, 4-3. It’s not easy to win in Amherst – well, this year it would seem to be – but the Eagles did just that by taking a 4-3 game against Hockey East rival UMass. Cam Atkinson’s career-high three assists were accompanied by BC goals from Paul Carey, Brian Gibbons, Barry Almeida, and Jimmy Hayes. With a New Hampshire tie, the Eagles pulled to within one point of the conference lead.

Saturday: Basketball rebounds, pounds Virginia 63-44. Though Virginia Tech’s victory over Duke has made that game this week (and BC’s bubble deathmatch) look a lot more ominous, they took care of business against the Virginia Cavaliers on the road, beating them by 19. It was yet another slow start for BC, falling behind 7-0 and not having any points at the first TV timeout for the third-straight game, but unlike the Miami disaster, this game did not get too far out of hand too quickly. The Eagles were able to stay in it and eventually take advantage of a weak Virginia club, taking a small halftime lead and blowing past them in the second half. BC basketball might not have much of a pulse right now, but it’s still a pulse.

Saturday: Eagles beat UMass at home, 2-1. I finally made it to the Conte Forum this year for a hockey game, which I’m happy to say they won. BC jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the first period on goals by Pat Mullane and Barry Almeida, but seemed to go on cruise control afterwards. The Eagles had some legitimately good scoring opportunities for the remainder of the game, but could not capitalize on any. UMass looked dreadful in the first period but got somewhat better as the game wore on, though many of the shots they took were honestly not very good. New Hampshire won, and the Eagles’ deficit is still one point with two to play (against, you guessed it, New Hampshire).

Sunday: Mark Herzlich at the NFL Scouting Combine. It’s certainly sad that he’s not wearing maroon and gold anymore, but I think I would be pretty pleased if he fell to my team in the draft.

The bad news, however, was pretty bad:

Thursday-Sunday: BC gets swept by #1 Florida, loses Sox exhibition. I had held some hope that maybe, just maybe, BC baseball would take one of the three games against the Florida Gators, but they fell each time. Not surprisingly, they also lost their annual exhibition against the Red Sox in Fort Myers. The Eagles are off to a 2-4 start in 2011.

Sunday: Women’s basketball loses to Maryland. A 10-point home defeat to #15 Maryland was in the cards for the Eagles this weekend, as they fall to a dismal 5-9 in the ACC to end the regular season. They will play again in the ACC Tournament on Thursday.