Duke 75, Boston College 50: Blue Devils Dominate Eagles

We knew it probably was not going to be pretty. It wasn’t.

On Sunday evening at Conte Forum, the #4 Duke Blue Devils defeated the Boston College Eagles men’s basketball team, 75-50. The loss drops BC to 8-19 (3-10) on the season, still with just one victory in the last month.

More often than not, Boston College gets out to an early lead, and today was no different. At the first TV timeout, the Eagles led Duke 13-7, but that was assuredly BC’s high point as the small lead slipped away and the Eagles never regained it. By halftime, Duke had built up a lead of nine points as Boston College’s scoring disappeared.

One might have believed that with a margin in the single digits, the Eagles could have still made a game out of it — the only condition was that BC not go into another deep funk. That was not met, and as soon as the second half begun, Duke begun expanding their lead, and by the first media break, the Blue Devils were up by 16. Duke’s lead grew to as many as 28, but finally settled at a 25-point defeat for the Eagles.

Going into this contest, nobody believed that these teams were on equal footing. Indeed, one is on pace for a #1 seed in the NCAA Tournament and the other is one of the youngest and weakest in the nation. This game went about as expected, though from the perspective of Boston College, you never want to see your team get frustrated and look at times completely helpless.

Part of BC’s helplessness is attributable to the rebounding situation, which was embarrassingly lopsided in favor of Duke. The Blue Devils collected 42 boards (including 12 offensive rebounds) to BC’s 20 (2 offensive rebounds), giving Duke a number of second-chance opportunities which they did not waste.

Further, only two Eagles came to play offensively: Ryan Anderson (21 points) and Matt Humphrey (12). The next most anybody had was six, and a number of guys for Boston College either had bad nights or were irrelevant.

It just was not BC’s night, nor was it going to be. On a side note, it was truly a pleasure to see a full Conte Forum for this game. A word to those students who made their way to their first game of the season tonight: this team is young and they are learning. Duke is legitimately one of the best teams in the nation. Don’t dismiss this bunch off of one bad performance; they need your support, and however much time you have remaining at BC, get out and support them through thick and thin. There is only one home game remaining against Georgia Tech, and it is a winnable game. Be there.

The Eagles return to action on Saturday afternoon at Wake Forest.