BC bottoms out
Eagles in last place with loss to Panthers
Boston College found itself in a familiar place following last night’s 83-72 loss to Pittsburgh at Conte Forum.
The Eagles dropped into last place in the ACC men’s basketball standings, a domain they held all last season while going winless in conference play. BC fell to 2-10 this season in the conference (9-16 overall) while Pitt improved 2-9 in the ACC (13-11 overall) as the teams exchanged places by a half game.
“A lot of it is on (the players), and quite honestly there are certain times when you get through to them and there are certain times they have to get through to each other,” BC coach Jim Christian said. “It’s up to them and I thought tonight we had a huge opportunity, especially at halftime tied 31-31, and we didn’t have anyone there to seize it. There wasn’t enough emotion and there wasn’t enough passion in their play, and it’s my team so it’s on me.”
Both ACC bottom-feeders were desperate for a victory. Pitt snapped an eight-game conference losing streak while BC extended its skid to seven.
“It wouldn’t have mattered if we were playing the Golden State Warriors, we needed a win,” Panthers coach Kevin Stallings said. “When you go on a skid like we’ve been on, and unfortunately like Jim is on, you just need a win and it doesn’t matter who it is against.”
BC posted some favorable numbers despite the unfavorable result. The Eagles shot 51 percent from the floor with eight 3-pointers, 25 rebounds and a 17-9 assist-to-turnover ratio.
Jerome Robinson paced BC with 22 points while freshman Ky Bowman netted 15 points and six assists.
Pitt shot 52 percent from the floor, 68 percent in the second half, with seven 3’s, 34 rebounds and 15 assists to nine turnovers. Michael Young matched his career high with 30 points, followed by Sheldon Jeter’s 16 and Chris Jones’ 14.
“I thought we never got into the toughness positions we needed to be in,” Christian said. “We blew ball-screen coverage early in the second half and they made short passes to Michael Young which forced us into too many rotations.”
The visitors’ chances appeared compromised when Jamel Artis, the Panthers’ leading scorer at 20.7 points per game, injured his right ankle on the opening possession. Artis returned to the floor with 12:25 remaining and BC leading, 15-12. His playing time was limited and he scored his first basket with 16:14 to play on the way six points.
“It was 19 seconds into the game (when Artis was hurt) and you watch 20 points look like he’s finished for the night,” Stallings said. “I thought if it weren’t for bad luck we wouldn’t have any luck, but we got good play all around and that’s what we needed.”
Pitt took its biggest lead of the game, 54-40, on a layup by Jeter and a 3-ball from Young with 12:35 remaining. BC couldn’t mount a sustained run, became overly reliant on the long ball and routinely ran into the Young-Jeter roadblock.
The Panthers took a 6654 lead on a Young jumper with 7:31 to play, and from there it was just a matter of time before the Eagles resided in the ACC cellar.