Familiar face burns Eagles
Ex-BC recruit Farrell lifts Irish
A point guard that once committed to play for Boston College compromised the Eagles’ postseason ambitions yesterday at Conte Forum.
Notre Dame senior Matt Farrell registered career highs for points (37) and 3-pointers (10) to lead the Fighting Irish to an 84-67 victory against BC before a packed house of 8,606.
Farrell committed to play for former BC coach Steve Donahue after his junior year at Point Pleasant Beach High School in Ocean County, N.J. Farrell took up the Irish cause in South Bend, Ind., when Donahue was fired and replaced by Jim Christain.
“Before my senior year I had committed here,” Farrell said. “I really liked coach Donahue and his staff and unfortunately they got fired.
“I opened up my recruitment and ended up here (Notre Dame) and I can’t complain.”
The loss was a huge setback for BC’s aspirations to play beyond the ACC tournament. The Eagles fell to 16-11 and 6-8 in the conference with four games remaining. ND improved to 16-11 and 6-8 in the ACC without leading scorer Bonzie Colson of New Bedford, who missed his 13th game with a fractured left foot.
BC has a winnable home game against Syracuse on Feb.28 and road games at North Carolina State, Miami and Florida State. The Eagles recorded quality home wins over No.25 Miami, Florida State and No. 1 Duke, but BC is not an NIT bubble team currently and needs ACC road wins to become viable in March.
“It was totally disappointing for us today, we had an unbelievable crowd and great energy in the building but we just didn’t play the way we are capable of playing,” Christian said.
“They know what is at stake and they understand what we are trying to do. They understand the road to get there and it’s all about confidence. We have to get some guys playing with more confidence.”
Jerome Robinson led BC with 29 points while Ky Bowman and Nik Popovic combined for 28.
Notre Dame shot 63 percent from the field and 14-of-23 from behind the 3-point stripe.
The Irish led by 16 at the break and opened the second half with a 10-0 run to go up 56-30, their biggest lead of the game with 18:12 to play. Farrell capped the spurt with his ninth straight 3-point shot.
Freshman Steffon Mitchell converted a three-point play with 14:40 remaining to launch a 17-4 BC run. Robinson hit a pull up jumper to cut the ND lead to 61-49 with 11:10 on the board.