Bryant 56, Boston College 54: Eagles Embarrassed by Bulldogs

On Sunday afternoon, the Bryant Bulldogs went to Conte Forum and beat the Boston College Eagles, 56-54. It was the Bulldogs’ first-ever win over the Eagles. With the loss, BC drops to 2-4.

The Eagles played a very, very bad game. This was not some freak loss where Bryant made a lot of lucky shots and pulled it out in a miracle: Boston College struggled mightily all day long, particularly on the offensive side of the floor, and Bryant seemed to play with more intensity. Indeed, the Bulldogs led for most of the game and did a good job in rebounding. Aside from Olivier Hanlan’s decent play, very little went right for the Eagles. Several key non-freshmen were, speaking frankly, terrible, and the team’s play as a whole was unimpressive.

This loss to Bryant may rank amongst BC basketball’s worst losses of the decade. It is certainly the worst of the young season so far, and if they don’t improve very quickly, there will be more. All of the progress BC made through the Baylor game has vanished, and some of that may be due to the fact that an injured Ryan Anderson still does not look like himself. Even so, an ACC team should not lose this game.

One might expect some soul-searching on the part of the Eagles as they try to figure out all the things that went wrong. If you’re Boston College, there is no excuse for losing to Bryant, no matter how improved they are. There is still a lot of season to go, but to date, the Eagles have not been impressive.

The Eagles will try again on Wednesday night as they face Penn State in the ACC-Big Ten Challenge.