With over a week since their last game, an 86-66 road loss to the Duke Blue Devils, the Syracuse Orange came home to host the Boston College Eagles.
The Orange and Eagles came in each at 10-4 overall and 1-2 in the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC).
This match-up served as the 84th game between the two, with Syracuse leading the series 57-26, including winning the last 10 contests against Boston College.
The Orange began the game on an 8-0 run which included back-to-back threes, the first from sophomore forward Chris Bell and the second by sophomore guard Justin Taylor.
A 1-for-2 outing at the charity stripe for Syracuse junior forward Benny Williams gave the Orange their first double-digit lead of the night, 17-7, with 8:18 left in the first half.
The three-pointer by Bell at the 5:51 mark gave him 10 points in 11 minutes, going 4-for-6 from the field at the time, including 2-for-4 from deep.
Shortly after, Bell would be credited with a steal and sophomore forward Maliq Brown would send the ball through traffic to sophomore guard Quadir Copeland who went to his left, away from his defender, and elevated over his head for two at the rim to give Syracuse a 25-9 advantage with 4:46 left in the first half.
Bell's second steal of the game would also end in points for Syracuse, this being two of his own on a dunk in transition that gave the Orange their largest lead of the first half (19), ahead 28-9 with 3:54 to play before halftime.
However, from there Boston College would finish the firs half on a 13-4 run including a three from senior guard Mason Madsen to beat the first-half buzzer, bringing the score to 32-22 Syracuse at recess time.
At the half, Bell led the Orange in scoring (12 points), Copeland led the team in rebounds (5, all defensive) and steals (3), and Brown led in blocks (3).
Junior guard Claudell Harris, Jr., led the Eagles in points at the break (10) and sophomore forward Devin McGlockton led the Eagles in rebounds (7, 6 defensive).
In the second half, Boston College out-scored Syracuse 23-17 in the first 11 minutes approximately, to shrink their deficit to two possessions, down 49-45 with 9:02 to play.
The Eagles would claw all the way to their first lead of the night when sophomore guard/forward Prince Aligbe made a layup at the 7:27 mark to make it 50-49 Eagles.
Bell responded with a three at the 6:35 mark to regain the lead for the Orange at 52-50.
An old-fashioned three-point play by McGlockton tied the game at 55, but Brown would dunk it home in transition to roll the Orange back ahead, 57-55.
With 3:45 to go, Copeland got to the rim and instead of forcing a shot, he dished to Brown for a dunk to bring the score to 61-57 Syracuse.
The inbounds pass from Aligbe would be stolen at the rim for a dunk by Brown to end the contest, getting Syracuse back to a double-digit lead, winning by 10, 69-59.
With the victory, Syracuse improved to 11-4 and are now .500 in the ACC at 2-2.
Boston College left the Dome 10-5 overall and 1-3 in the ACC.
As he did in the first half, Bell would lead all Orange scorers overall, ending with 20 points in 28 minutes, followed by Brown who had 19 points to go with eight rebounds, and sophomore point guard Judah Mintz had 10 points off of the bench.
Harris led the Eagles with 16 points, followed by McGlckton with 15, Madsen with 11, and Aligbe with 10. McGlockton finished with a double-double, grabbing 14 rebounds to go with his 15 points.
Comments