Eagles feel better after beating ’Canes
CHESTNUT HILL, Mass. — Jordan Chatman finished with 17 points and Nik Popovic had 15 to carry the Boston College offense with star Ky Bowman under the weather in a 64-57 win over Miami on Sunday night.
Chatman became the 44th player in school history to score 1,000 points. The senior guard reached the milestone on a 3-pointer at 14:47 of the second half.
Bowman, the Eagles’ leading scorer, had six points on 3-of-11 shooting with eight rebounds and eight assists after coming down with a 102-degree fever on Saturday night.
Popovic also grabbed 14 rebounds after missing the Eagles’ win over Pittsburgh on Tuesday while in concussion protocol. Steffon Mitchell added nine points and six rebounds.
Boston College (13-11, 4-8 ACC) won its second straight game after losing four in a row.
Ebuka Izundu scored 14 points and Chris Lykes, Anthony Lawrence and Sam Waardenburg each had 10 apiece for Miami (11-14, 3-10), which had won two of three.
The Hurricanes were 65-64 winners against Clemson on Wednesday after Zach Johnson’s gamesealing jumper with 0.4 seconds left.
Popovic made a pair of free throws with 17:54 remaining to give Boston College its first double-digit lead.
Miami fought back to pull within four twice after back-to-back baskets by Johnson with just under six minutes to play.
Mitchell’s free throw with 5:37 to go started an 11-1 run for BC, which got the lead up to 14 before sealing the win at the freethrow line.
Chatman’s 3 to make it 19-16 with 8:31 left in the opening half put the Eagles ahead for good. BC led 25-21 at the break.
Big picture: The Canes briefly turned things around after a five-game skid, with their only loss in a three-game span before Sunday being an 88-85 overtime setback versus No. 8 North Carolina on Feb. 9. Now, they’ve dropped 10 of 13. Miami plays three of its final five regular-season games on the road, including dates with No. 2 Duke on March 2 and No. 22 Virginia Tech on March 8.
IT support: Ex-Boston Celtics star and current Denver Nuggets guard Isaiah Thomas worked out at the University of Miami during the NBA All-Star break. The school tweeted a photo of Thomas and sophomore guard Chris Lykes together with the caption “Learnin’ from one of the best PGs around.”
Up next: Miami hosts Georgia Tech next Saturday.