Boston College 68, Virginia 55: Eagles blast out of starting gate, triumph over Cavaliers in home finale

Boston College junior forward Corey Raji scored a game-high 18 points as the Eagles topped ACC rival Virginia 68-55 in their home finale at Conte Forum on Wednesday night.

By Jared Keene

CHESTNUT HILL - Anybody who follows the Boston College men’s basketball team knows that this has been a transition year for the Eagles.

Bad losses, no big-time scorers, and youth, among other things, have all contributed to their lack-luster season.

Junior forward Corey Raji tallied a game-high 18 points along with nine rebounds to lead Boston College to a 68-55 victory over Virginia in an Atlantic Coast Conference showdown Wednesday night at Conte Forum.

The game was the Eagles’ last at home this season, and provided them with confidence as the ACC tournament approaches.

“These last couple games that we’ve had, our plan was just to go out and play hard,” said Raji. “Defensively, we’ve been playing collectively, limiting second shots and doing a good job on the boards and offensively, we’ve just been executing. That’s been the difference from the games that we’ve lost and the games that we’ve won. I feel like if we do this again next week, we’ll be in pretty good position going into the ACC Tournament.”

The Eagles (15-14, 6-9 ACC) came out soaring, starting the game on a 13-2 run over the first 3:48. All five of the Eagles starters scored at least two points in the run, with Joe Trapani (14 points) scoring five of Boston College’s 13.

“I just thought it was important for us to get off to a good start,” said Boston College coach Al Skinner. “I think Virginia’s a very good team shooting the basketball and it was important for us to get out and defend that. When you start going out and defending shooters, it means you’ve got to work. I think our energy was up and we were focused on that. It just created some opportunities for us on the offensive end.”

Even though Virginia (14-14, 5-10 ACC) trailed by 10 or more on two other occasions (15-5 and 17-7), the Cavaliers crawled right back in it and cut the Eagles’ lead to four at 20-16 on Mike Scott’s (13 points) jumper.

Three minutes later, Virginia went ice cold, ultimately dooming itself in the end.

The difference in this tilt came in the first half, when Boston College held Virginia scoreless over a span of 6:42 and scored eight of its own during that time. A layup by Mustapha Farrakhan with 9:22 left in the first half brought the Cavaliers to within four at 24-20, but they didn’t score again until Sylven Landesberg’s (13 points) layup with 2:40 left.

During that 8-0 run, four different players scored and the Eagles were able to get out on the break, converting a pair of layups in transition. More importantly, it pushed Boston College’s lead back to double-digits after it had held three earlier double-digit leads.

“The most important thing was that we got out and contested shots,” Skinner said. “That’s where our effort was. Maybe for that period of time, it paid off for us, as they didn’t make their shots. We were able to contest shots which forced long rebounds, and we were able to capitalize by getting some transition baskets. I just thought it was a constant effort that we made on the defensive end.”

Boston College took a 37-23 lead into the intermission. Eight different Eagles scored in the first half, led by Trapani’s nine points. In the second half, it was more Boston College domination. The Eagles never led by less than 12 in the second half, and their biggest lead was by 19 points at 46-27 early in the second half.

The Eagles shot 44% for the game (25-of-57) compared to UVA’s 46% (24-of-52) and the Eagles out-rebounded Virginia 35-31. Boston College also had six steals to the Cavaliers’ two and made 15-of-18 at the free throw line compared to UVA being under 50% (5-of-11).

Both teams were atrocious from beyond the arc, as they combined to go 5-25 (Boston College- 3-of-12, UVA 2-of-13).

Besides the two double-digit scorers already mentioned for the two teams, only one other player on each squad recorded 10 or more points. UVA’s Jermore Meyinsse scored 12 points on 6-of-6 shooting from the field while Rakim Sanders had 11 points on 5-of-12 shooting for Boston College.

NOTES

Junior forward Corey Raji’s 18 points marks the 40th time in his career he has scored double-figures in a game. He has now scored in double-figures in four straight games for the Eagles…Raji pulled down nine rebounds in the win which now gives him over 500 rebounds for his career as an Eagle…The Eagles are now 13-5 on the season when sophomore guard Reggie Jackson is in the starting lineup…Wednesday night’s win is the 40th ACC win for Boston College since it joined the conference in the 2005-06 season. Only five other teams have won more ACC games during that stretch (Duke - 58, North Carolina - 55, Maryland - 44, Clemson - 42 and Florida State - 41).

Jared Keene is a Blogger for Boston Sports U18. He is also a Sports Correspondent for The MetroWest Daily News. You can follow Jared on Twitter at twitter.com/jkeene_bsu18, and he can be reached at jkeene11@gmail.com.