Virginia 66, BC 49: Eagles Hang Tough, But Fall to Cavaliers

Definitely closer than the score.

On Thursday night in Charlottesville, Virginia, the Boston College Eagles were defeated by the #19 Virginia Cavaliers, 66-49. The Eagles have fallen to 7-13 (2-4).

This game was close most of the way through, as the Eagles got behind a couple of times in the first three quarters or so of the contest but fought their way back.

Towards the end of the first half, BC gave up a three-pointer to put Virginia up by 8, but they were undaunted, eventually tying the score at 44-44 on a Danny Rubin three with 10:29 to go. Unfortunately, that was pretty much the last we would hear from BC tonight.

As is convention, the team had their nightly long stretch of “what’s a basket and how do you make them?” play, but it could not have come at a worse time. Boston College made two field goals and one free throw in the last ten minutes of the game, allowing the Cavaliers to end on a 22-5 run.

Boston College shot just 40% as a team and committed 15 turnovers, but surprisingly enough, they were only outrebounded 29-24.

In good news, Ryan Anderson had yet another double-double, even in spite of the fact that he played just 29 minutes due to an in-game injury. Further, Danny Rubin made both shots he took: three-pointers.

As for the bad, the guy about whom to be concerned, if anyone, has to be Patrick Heckmann. This is not the first game he’s played this season where he has been hurting the team, and it’s become a recent trend. One would hope that his issues are correctable, but as it stands, he appears to be really the only notable player on the team who has regressed over the course of the season. Yes, there was an injury very early on, but even after that, he had some good games. His struggles could be mental, or they might not be, but one thing is for certain: he needs to relocate his game, because offensively he’s a non-factor now and he is airmailing passes/throwing interceptions directly to the other team. Donahue has been responding by only playing him about 12 minutes or so a game, and tonight, Heckmann got 11.

It was the best road game the Eagles have played since Providence, even though the final score got away from them at the end. People who only see the score will think that BC got run over, but that was not so for the majority of the game. Those who observed it will know that it was a representative effort by Boston College, and far better than what they did against Wake Forest or NC State.

Their next game is on Sunday afternoon at 1pm against Miami.