Cards Fly Higher than Eagles, Drop BC 90-67
By Matt Sottile
The last four ACC opponents that faced Boston College posted a margin of victory of 8 points or less. Then Louisville came to town on Saturday. Through the first 19 minutes of play, it looked as if the Eagles could go stride for stride with the #6 Cardinals, only trailing by four points. Louisville then ended the first half with a three point play by V.J. King, followed by a drive to the basket in transition by Donovan Mitchell to extend the lead to nine at halftime. The Cards then proceeded to drop 51 points in the second half en route to a 90-67 victory.
The Eagles came out of the gates cold, trailing 10-0 and being shutout for over five minutes, before a pair of free throws and a field goal for Ky Bowman, shortly followed by a basket from Nik Popovic, cut the Louisville lead to four. BC would trim the lead to four on 3 separate occasions in the first half, the closest they would get to tying it up all afternoon. Three pointers were hard to come by for the Eagles as they started the game 1 for 8 and would conclude the contest with a 33.3% three point percentage. Louisville’s defensive effort prevented BC from getting the first looks they wanted. Jim Christian commented on his team’s inability to produce and Louisville’s success containing by saying, “[Louisville] is a team that makes you switch up plays. I don’t think we made the next big basketball play.” He then added, “Our guys learned a valuable lesson today: how hard you need to play to beat good teams.”
Boston College’s prominent trio of big men, Mo Jeffers, Nic Popovic and Connar Tava, combined for only 10 points, along with 8 fouls. Pitino stated, “We wanted movement to take away their bigs, and guys did great.” There was a clear discrepancy in the box score, as Louisville posted a field goal percentage of 57.6% and a free throw percentage of 84.2%. The Eagles posted a mark of 45.5% from the field, and struggled from the charity stripe, shooting only 69.2%. Ky Bowman led BC in scoring with 18 points. Jerome Robinson struggled all afternoon, going 0 for 5 from beyond the arc, yet still finished as the Eagles’ second leading scorer with his contribution of 13 points.
The Cardinals were once again without junior guard Quentin Snider, one of their three players averaging double figures this season, who strained his hip flexor in a January 14th victory over Duke. They relied heavily on Deng Adel and Donovan Mitchell, their other two leading scorers, who each posted game-high figures of 19 points. 15 of Mitchell’s 19 points came in the second half. Rick Pitino, when talking about his sophomore shooting guard, said, “You can’t ask too much more out of him. Our guys are having a lot of fun playing the game. They took every open shot, and they’re not counting their misses anymore. That’s big.” Mangok Mathiang came off the bench and contributed 16 points to Louisville’s offensive explosion.
The final score was not indicative of the Eagles’ effort in the first half and their ability to compete with the top level of competition in the ACC. Pitino praised the Eagles by saying, “They are getting every ounce out of their talent.” Christian also noted, “Their effort level was far superior to ours. … They took it up a level and we refused to go to that level. It was 34-30, we needed to show more energy, more passion, more effort.”
Boston College will host Pitt on Wednesday, while Louisville will gear up for a tough Big Monday contest on the road at #9 Virginia.