Banged-up BC handles Pitt
Boston College has suffered from a slew of injuries and unfortunate luck that has aided in derailing its 2018-19 season.
The bad luck reached a new level last night, but this time, the Eagles had enough to overcome it.
Despite missing two starters and then losing two more for different periods, BC came up with enough plays to prevail. Ky Bowman had 14 points, eight rebounds and seven assists in all 40 minutes, and Chris Herren Jr. and Jairus Hamilton stepped up to help the Eagles pull away for a 66-57 victory against Pittsburgh at Conte Forum, snapping their four-game losing streak.
Wynston Tabbs and Nik Popovic were out again, forcing Jim Christian to come up with his 11th different starting lineup of the year, and that was just the beginning. Steffon Mitchell was poked in the eye and left the game, and Jordan Chatman’s left index finger was cut open, forcing him to leave twice. He did not play the final nine minutes. Still, BC found a way. “It’s what it is,” Christian said. “It’s been a funny year with that stuff, and there’s nothing you can do to control it, it just happens. So ... we’re playing without three starters, three guys that play a lot of minutes. … You have to find a way to win games, and we were lucky enough to find a way to win. Timely shots and stops.”
The Eagles (12-11, 3-8 ACC) trailed by two with 10 minutes to go, but Herren Jr. gave them life. On one possession, he grabbed two offensive rebounds under the basket and scored on a putback layup. It seemed to give him confidence.
Bowman scored back-toback buckets to give BC a 5553 lead with 7:25 left before Herren took control. He pulled up and canned a jumper on a fast break, then after Jared Wilson-Frame cut the Eagles’ lead to one with a 3, Herren responded with a 3 from the left wing. On the next possession, he found Jared Hamilton for a 3 to give them a seven-point cushion.
“He’s got great confidence,” Christian said of Herren. “Those were two huge plays in the game. I thought him and Jairus made some huge plays in the game. It was good to see that both freshmen contribute like that, and there’s obviously a lot of things that Chris just needs to learn as a player, at the end of the game situationally, but without those two plays, those were two very confident plays and that’s the kind of player he is.”
Nursing a lead, Christian opted to switch to a zone defense, and it worked. Pitt (12-13, 2-10) scored just six points over the last 9:14. The Panthers shot just 29 percent for the game, including going 10-for-37 from 3, and leading scorer Xavier Johnson was held to just eight points on a 3-for-19 shooting.
First-year Pitt coach Jeff Capel credited BC’s role players for taking control down the stretch.
“Their others guys stepped up and really, really played well for them,” said Capel, whose team lost its eighth consecutive game, and 18th straight ACC road game dating back two years. “Between Herren, Hamilton, (Johncarlos) Reyes and (Luka) Kraljevic, they had 32 points and 20 rebounds. … Those guys stepped up and made big plays. I thought we did a good job on Bowman, but it was the other guys that really hurt us.”
Tabbs missed his sixth straight game with a knee injury, and Popovic is in the concussion protocol. Christian said both are progressing.
Christian was happy to see the resolve of his team rewarded with a victory.
“I’ve never been down on our team,” Christian said. “This is a tough league, man. … There’s a lot of teams in our league that, if they played the schedule that we play, would have a similar record. We’ve done a lot of good things during those games, and I give these guys a lot of credit because they weathered all those storms, twice, and bounced back.” In Top 25 action:
LSU 73, Kentucky 71 — Kavell Bigby-Williams’s tipin at the buzzer lifted the 19th-ranked Tigers (20-4, 10-1 SEC) past the No. 5 Wildcats (20-4, 10-2) in LExington, Ky.
With the game tied after Keldon Johnson made two free throws with 6 seconds left, Skylar Mays drove the length of the court. His shot missed but Bigby-Williams got the offensive rebound and scored to give the Tigers their first win over the Wildcats since 2009.
Michigan St. 67, Wisconsin 59 — Cassius Winston scored 23 points to help the No. 11 Spartans (20-5, 11-3 Big Ten) beat the No. 20 Badgers (17-7, 9-4) in Madison, Wis.
Winston outdueled Wisconsin’s Ethan Happ, who scored 20 points and grabbed 12 rebounds.
At times, the game seemed like a contest between the two heavyweights as Winston seemed to answer every Happ hook shot with a floater or 3-pointer.