WORCESTER - It couldn't have gone much worse for Boston College, which managed to make only 19-of-51 field goals while surrendering 11 three pointers - five of which came from Devin Brown (32 points, five rebounds, five assists) in an 86-64 blowout loss to Holy Cross on Friday night at the DCU Center.
"I thought holy cross did a terrific job just throughout the whole game," said Boston College head coach Steve Donahue. "Earlier on, I thought they were ready, came out and played, and again in the second half I thought they played with great poise and great experience."
Boston College (1-1) hung around for most of the first half, never trailing by more than 12 points after Holy Cross (1-2) went on a 12-3 run to build a 28-16 lead with 6:20 to play. The Crusaders took an eight point lead, 38-30, into the half. In the opening 20 minutes, Holy Cross buried an impressive 7-of-10 threes.
The second half was far worse for the Eagles, who shot a dismal 33.3 percent from the floor (8-for-24). Holy Cross grabbed a 15 point lead, 65-50, with 9:29 to play in the game and built the lead up to 24, 86-62, with 1:27 left.
"I thought we could play some different defenses to speed them up," Donahue said. "They're not a team that can pass the ball well so I thought we could do some traps and things like that. To their credit, I thought they moved the ball well and got open shots. They hurt us in transition early on, made threes, and really played solid basketball, and I thought we could do that. We didn't do a good job of taking away that stuff, taking away traps, and I give them credit. I think they learned from the first two games this season and they really came prepared and played well."
The Crusaders were extremely sharp from the field, especially so from three-point range, making 11-of-21 long balls (52.4 percent) and made 31-of-58 shots in the game (53.4 percent). Boston College finished with a 37.3 mark from the field and only made 8-of-27 three pointers (29.6 percent) and 18-of-26 free throws (69.2 percent).
Jordan Daniels led the Eagles with 15 points and was tied with Dennis Clifford (10 points, five rebounds) with three assists. John Cahill scored 13 points, 11 in the first half, and both Ryan Anderson and Matt Humphrey finished with nine points for Boston College. Daniels was effective at points for BC, but did only make 4-of-15 field goals.
"I think Jordan Daniels did a decent job for the first time handling the ball as much as he did," Donahue noted. "I think he probably took too many shots but I thought he had some good comfort level building. There's still some good things with him."
The Eagles were dealt a major setback after freshman Patrick Heckmann, the team's leading scorer with 19 points in the season-opening win against UNH, missed the game with a sprained ankle and is still day-to-day.
R.J. Evans scored 14 points on 7-of-9 shooting and Dave Dudzinski had 10 points and six rebounds for the Crusaders. Phil Beans made 3-of-4 shots from outside to add nine points and collected six rebounds in the win. Justin Burrell only scored five points but dished out seven assists.
Boston College returns to the court on Monday to host the Massachusetts Minutemen.
For more BC Basketball coverage, visit our team page and blog, BC Interruption.