Boston College 72, St. Francis (NY) 64: Eagles Rally to Beat Terriers

A win is a win, or so they say.

On Saturday afternoon at Conte Forum, Boston College men’s basketball defeated the Terriers of St. Francis College, 72-64. The victory moves BC to 4-5 on the season and gives them their third win in out of the past five games.

Boston College led for much of the first half, but with just minutes to go, St. Francis broke through and took a very modest lead over the Eagles. The Terriers carried it into the half and, much like Harvard did earlier in the week, exploded out of the gate to take a more sizable lead. St. Francis built a 9-point lead less than five minutes into the second half, but some much-needed defensive pressure and timely shooting coming to life allowed BC to chip away at their deficit and eventually overturn it.

From then on, with a few exceptions, Boston College would hold a lead of a few points over the Terriers, ultimately icing the game at the free-throw line and winning by eight.

Leading BC in scoring on Saturday was Patrick Heckmann with 18; Olivier Hanlan had 13 and Joe Rahon posted 12. Ryan Anderson got very limited minutes for reasons that are yet unknown. Dennis Clifford was again out for Boston College and is not likely to play for several more weeks.

St. Francis hung around in this game for a long time. They were helped out by some sloppy play from Boston College and opportune shots of their own. One item of particular concern is that just like in the Harvard game, the Eagles looked lost coming out of halftime, but to their credit, they did not fold like they did on Tuesday. Instead, BC made some adjustments and got themselves back in the game with better offensive possessions and better defense. They also cut down on the number of turnovers drastically in the final 15 minutes of the contest, while taking advantage of the nineteen St. Francis coughed up.

Give Boston College credit for mounting the comeback. They had to fight hard to win this game, which is both a positive and negative: Positive in that BC showed some guts and did not pack it up when the Terriers took their comfortable lead in the second half, but negative in that an Atlantic Coast Conference team probably should not be playing tight games with the likes of St. Francis College (or Bryant for that matter).

At this point, it is difficult to take precise measure of this team’s improvement. There are variables to consider which don’t make it a clear-cut answer, but if the current trend continues, Eagles fans worrying about the team having long stretches of looking “lost” will probably persist.

Boston College now enters its finals break and will return to action next Sunday, December 16 against New Hampshire.