Boston College-Duke Final: Blue Devils Overwhelm Eagles for 85-62 Win
By Joe Micik
Boston College-Duke Final: #2 Duke ran away to an 85-62 win over the Boston College Eagles on Saturday afternoon in Durham.
The loss drops Boston College to 7-5 (0-1) on the season, with the Eagles falling in both their first ACC contest of the year and their first true road game.
Boston College-Duke Final: Game Synopsis
The first half of the game started respectably for Boston College, who managed to keep the score close in the opening minutes. About six minutes in, the Eagles were down 12-10, and at the half-way point, they trailed 21-18. The latter was several minutes after Dennis Clifford collected his early second foul, riding the bench for the remainder of the first.
Though Boston College stayed afloat for some of this stretch, eventually, long periods of Eddie Odio and John Cain Carney in the rotation and brick after brick caught up with them. After Patrick Heckmann’s foul at 21-18, Duke went on a 17-4 run to close the half. The Eagles shot just 32 percent in the first, including 1-for-8 from deep, with eight turnovers.
Boston College managed to cut the deficit down to ten points in the earlier stages of the second half, but Duke got hot again. The flood gates opened for Duke once more after Dennis Clifford was assessed a flagrant foul for elbowing Jahlil Okafor in the face. Clifford was gesturing an elbowing motion to the referee, and Okafor got in behind Clifford’s arm — not surprisingly, taking an elbow to the face.
A 12-point lead at the time, the Duke lead would explode into the twenties from there, and the game was never in doubt.
Boston College-Duke Final: The Stats
Olivier Hanlan led all Eagles with 22 points; Aaron Brown was next with 11. Dennis Clifford had eight points when he fouled out.
Jahlil Okafor led all scorers with 28. Quinn Cook had 15 and Justise Winslow scored 13.
Duke shot 47 percent from the floor while Boston College shot 41 percent. Duke attempted 29 free throws, while Boston College attempted ten.
Boston College-Duke Final: Hot Takes
This is nothing Boston College fans did not already know, but the Eagles’ deficiencies in terms of talent and depth are magnified in games such as this. Boston College does not have the horses to compete in the ACC and/or against its top teams.
Boston College Eagles
With regards to the Clifford flagrant, it was not intentional, and it seemed to me that Okafor saw what Clifford was doing and walked into it hoping to get a call. Give him credit, as it was the smart thing to do on Okafor’s part. While there was no intent by Clifford, he and everyone else on the Eagles have to be careful. It’s Cameron Indoor Stadium and Duke will get every call under the sun. Do not give them additional opportunities.
Olivier Hanlan had a better game than his average level of performance lately, but far more players did poorly. Aaron Brown had one of his least effective games so far, as did Dimitri Batten. With Clifford’s early foul trouble, the Eagles got significant playing time from Odio and Carney off the bench and neither contributed in a meaningful way. It was difficult to find many good things to say about how the Eagles played, and sadly, a loss of this size was not unexpected.
Boston College-Duke Final: Next Up
The Eagles return to Conte Forum for a late Tuesday night tilt with the Pittsburgh Panthers in their first ACC home game of the season.