Boston College Eagles fall to UNC Tar Heels 82-71
By Kyle Egan
Jan 18, 2014; Chapel Hill, NC, USA; Boston College Eagles head coach Steve Donahue reacts as guard Lonnie Jackson (20) is in the foreground in the second half. The Tar Heels defeated the Eagles 82-71 at Dean E. Smith Student Activities Center. Mandatory Credit: Bob Donnan-USA TODAY Sports
Boston College came into the season with the greatest of expectations. In 2012-2013 they played elite teams close and with their impact players being either sophomores or freshmen, all seemed to think they’d improve even more. That’s why ESPN had them on the main channel taking on the University of North Carolina Tar Heels on Saturday afternoon. But of course as the story of the season has gone, the Eagles have even reached below nightmare scenarios.
On Saturday afternoon, Steve Donahue’s Boston College Eagles came into Chapel Hill beaten up and bruised more than a Bruce Springsteen song with a record of 5-12 with a mediocre 1-3 mark in the ACC. They held the lead for a substantial period in the second half of their Monday match against #2 Syracuse Orange, but in the period of a minute the Orange flipped the storyline. In usual fashion the Eagles fizzled out late. Morale is definitely low and even that “moral victory” wasn’t giving the Eagles any added confidence.
BC was up against a UNC squad that hadn’t won yet in ACC play. The game started pretty slow for the first few minutes with Boston College even having a 7-4 lead at one point early. However, the usual problems for Boston College struck: their weak bench, incorrigible rebounding and inconsistent performances from the charity stripe. The bench, which didn’t even score in the loss against Syracuse, could only get 5 points with Notre Dame transfer Alex Dragicevich getting zilch.
The performances by the feature players for BC was quite underwhelming with Anderson, despite the double double, not making a remarkable impact and Olivier Hanlan turning over the ball six times(BC did it 18 times).
Two bright spots were Eddie Odio somehow making 3 triples (12 pts total) and Lonnie Jackson getting 14 points on 5/7 shooting. As has been mentioned multiple times, Jackson deserves more shots because he is definitely in a hot streak.
One point worthy of note is in the end of the game with Coach Steve Donahue attempting to get a technical foul to try to “fire up” his team(well that’s my guess anyways), but had work at being an annoyance for a minute to even earn it. It was almost as pathetic as his slip and fall at Harvard. Maybe he should a page from the Jason Kidd coaching manual and spill some water on the court next time.
Anyways Boston College kept it close for most of it but were never able to take it over from the Tar Heels eventually losing 82-71. Of course one might say that it’s great that Boston College played well on the road however that can’t cut it anymore. Coach Donahue should be coaching for his job but all we are seeing lately have been pathetic performances that drum up a lack of fan confidence and a weakened image for potential recruits. A change is necessary and hopefully someone at Boston College will pull the trigger soon.
Boston College drops to 5-13 (1-4 ACC) while UNC pushes their record to 11-6 (1-3 ACC). Boston College’s next game is against the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets at Conte Forum 9 PM on Tuesday.