Observations from Eagles Loss at Clemson

By Anthony Iati

Boston College (9-22, 2-16 ACC) dropped its regular season finale, 82-68, to the Clemson Tigers (16-14, 6-12 ACC) at Littlejohn Coliseum. Some observations, including some positives, from the Eagles’ 14th consecutive loss. Let’s start with the negatives:

Negatives

• Fouls: Officially, the Eagles committed 24 fouls to the Tigers’ mere eight. The impact on the game was even greater than this margin suggests. Clemson was in the double bonus for nearly half of the first half, while two fouls apiece on Ky Bowman, Mo Jeffers, and Nic Popovic kept three of BC’s top six or seven players glued to the bench. It’s no secret that BC lacks the depth to win in the ACC with deep bench play.
• Lack of depth: Speaking of the deep bench, fouls forced Coach Jim Christian to turn to Mike Sagay and Johncarlos Reyes for meaningful first half minutes. While the playing time is valuable for these freshmen going forward, their lack of production was a big reason the Eagles scored just 26 first half points and trailed 42-26 at the break. As he usually does, Sagay seemed to hold his own. But Clemson was able to exploit Reyes’s defense and the center also mishandled the ball on a layup opportunity at the offensive end.
• Late half struggles: Three days after BC allowed Notre Dame to end the first half on a 15-0 run, the Eagles saw Clemson end this first frame on an 11-0 run. BC had been close and even led for pieces of the first half. But Avry Holmes, a top 3-point shooter in the ACC, nailed three triples, including two deep ones, to score nine straight points. Great shooters are almost always going to get theirs, but the concerning part on Saturday was how wide open Holmes got. He would finish 5-for-8 from three.

Positives

• AJ Turner’s offense: The sophomore forward’s final linescore won’t wow you (10 pts on 40% shooting, 2-for-7 from three), but Turner’s shot creation was encouraging. A knock on his game has been that he is sometimes tentative on offense, and doesn’t always find his shot. He used a pretty step back move to free himself against Clemson’s defense and pulled the trigger with no hesitation on most of his three-point attempts. 
• Some fun to watch: The Eagles never made a serious threat in the second half, but they fought as hard as they usually do. A late Bowman alley-oop to Jerome Robinson resulted in one of the prettiest highlights of the season. Popovic again showed some nice offensive moves, spinning around a defender to get to the cup and throw down a dunk. Finally, with the game well out of reach, Bowman responded to being stuffed at the rim the way any coach would want. He sprinted down the length of the court and knocked the ball free from Clemson star Jaron Blossomgame. On an afternoon when Bowman never got untracked offensively and faced constant chants of “Airball!” from the Tiger faithful, his hustle was noticeable and appreciated.

Photo: Boston Globe