Milon’s Hot Streak Not Enough, Eagles Fall to ‘Cuse
By Anthony Iati
For the second straight game, Boston College battled a superior ACC opponent deep into the second half. For the second straight game, a BC guard exploded for 20+ points. For the second straight game, the Eagles’ first conference win eluded them. BC (7-18, 0-12 ACC) wove a similar tale to that of Tuesday night, as it fell, 75-61, to the Syracuse Orange (18-8, 8-5) on Valentine’s Day afternoon before a sea of Orange fans in Conte Forum.
After the first 2:30 of play passed by without points on the scoreboard, it appeared the game might play out as defensively as the teams’ first matchup this year, a 62-40 Syracuse win at the Carrier Dome on January 13. Before long, the offenses would take over. The Eagles nudged ahead to slim leads of 6-2 and 11-8 before the Orange tore off a 13-0 run to electrify their fans and head into a timeout up by ten.
Enter Matt Milon. The 6’4″ shooting guard out of Oviedo, Florida, erupted for the best game of his collegiate career. A freshman, Milon was twice named a McDonald’s All-America nominee in high school and earned Florida Class 7A Player of the Year honors as well. Coming off the bench for a shorthanded BC squad, Milon provided the spark BC needed to hang with the Orange. By halftime, he had blown past his previous career-high of 16 points in the team’s November 22 win over Harvard. The final 3:23 of the first half proved critical, as BC turned a 9-point deficit into a 1-point margin. However, a minor rebounding lapse by Dennis Clifford allowed Syracuse senior guard Trevor Cooney to sneak in a putback at the buzzer, pushing the Orange halftime advantage to 35-32.
Uncharacteristically, the Orange shot just 23.1% from 3-point land in the first half. Basic averages rendered it unlikely that figure would continue. Predictably, Syracuse did improve in that category– by a whopping 57%. The Orange shot the lights out in the second, going 8-for-10, through the combined efforts of sixth man Tyler Lydon and starters Michael Gbinije and Malachi Richardson.
As the Orange heated up from deep, the Eagles cooled off. Thanks to Milon’s big first half, BC was 4-for-7 from downtown in the first, but fell to 5-for-12 in the second half. Against the vaunted 2-3 Boeheim zone defense, the Eagles were forced to try to shoot over it, rather than penetrating inside. Sammy Barnes-Thompkins, seeing more action due to the injuries to Jerome Robinson and AJ Turner, picked up the slack with 11 points in 28 minutes. Clifford also put together another aggressive game, following up Tuesday’s double-double with a 16-and-8 performance on Sunday.
Despite this newfound balance in the Eagles’ scoring, they could not get a key stop. Syracuse turned 13 BC turnovers into 23 points in the game, many of them coming during a 24-7 run that followed Clifford’s go-ahead and-one early in the second. That run made it 63-48 Syracuse with 9:00 to play. BC never got closer than nine points down the rest of the way.
The ACC record still looks ugly, and a quick turnaround is not in the cards for 2015-16. But Coach Christian clearly sees the bigger picture with this program. The experience accumulated by freshmen like Milon, Barnes-Thompkins, Ervins Meznieks, Idy Diallo, and the injured Robinson and Turner will pay dividends in future years. Next year, the Eagles will lose Clifford and graduate transfer Eli Carter. This is going to be the Class of 2019’s team.
Though the Eagles came up short again on Sunday, this past week made that future look a little more manageable. No, this is not Boeheim’s strongest Syracuse team. Yes, the Eagles caught the UNC Tar Heels with a radically new starting five and with Coach Roy Williams suddenly collapsing during the game. Nevertheless, there was progress made in the two defeats.
The Eagles’ hunt for conference win No. 1 will continue on Wednesday night at Clemson.