Eagles Can't Corral Cavaliers

GREENSBORO, N.C. — Without leading scorer and playmaker Sylven Landesberg, Virginia was not even supposed to give Boston College a scare in the opening round of the ACC tournament. The Cavaliers did much more than that, toppling the Eagles, 68-62, behind the sharpshooting of Sammy Zeglinski and clutch free-throw shooting down the stretch.

It was the first time the Eagles lost in the first round of the ACC tournament, and it is very likely, barring a surprise invitation to the NIT, that BC's season is over.

"This sucks, no one wants to feel this kind of feeling," said Dallas Elmore.

BC completed an 8-0 run with just under nine minutes to go after Rakim Sanders scored six straight points and Dallas Elmore added an acrobatic layup, cutting Virginia's lead to 49-46. Virginia head coach Tony Bennett wisely called a timeout, and, after allowing his team to regroup, the Cavaliers never let the Eagles get closer than five points.

Nine points from Zeglinski and Mustapha Farrakhan, as well as lockdown Cavalier defense (only four BC points total between 5:41 and 1:19 remaining) kept Virginia's lead, this time a 61-52 edge. Seven of 10 free throws later, the Cavaliers' bench erupted in celebration as the Eagles somberly walked off the court.

"We lost the shooters, [Jeff] Jones and Zeglinski," said Tyler Roche. "Those 3-pointers hurt us. I thought we had the momentum, we were down three, but they would hit big threes and bring us down again. We couldn't seem to find a way to get back and take a lead."

The five-man lineup of Biko Paris, Cortney Dunn, Sanders, Roche, and Elmore – Sanders being the only starter – played nearly all of the final seven minutes and clearly struggled to generate consistent offense. Although Sanders scored 22 points and Reggie Jackson added 18 points and nine rebounds, missed 3-pointers by Roche and Sanders, plus two turnovers in a minute and a half, prevented the Eagles from cutting into the six-point deficit. Joe Trapani was also held without a field goal for the first time all season and saw only 22 minutes of action.

"Joe was struggling a little bit today for whatever reason, and I thought maybe Reggie was a little tired because he played a lot and because Virginia was sprinting around, and he exerted a lot of energy," BC head coach Al Skinner said of his reasons to sit two starters. "And when you look at our club, we only had nine assists for the game, and we usually average that for the half. That means the ball is not moving, and we're not making good decisions on the offensive end."

The Eagles opened the game with crisp, long-range shooting to match 10 early points from Zeglinski, who was held scoreless in the teams' previous match-up just eight days before. In the final 10 minutes, however, BC managed just four points, while Virginia jumped ahead with a 17-4 run to go into halftime with a 34-27 lead.

Whenever the Eagles tried to catch Virginia in the second half, a Cavalier would hit a clutch 3-pointer or tip in a missed shot down low.

"We came in, we prepared for them, but they just outworked us today," Roche said. "They built an early lead in the second half, and we couldn't catch them."

"On the defensive end, we did not maintain our concentration," Skinner said. "We let guys get away from us. When you're in that situation, you need to make sure your execution on both ends of the floor are proper. We gave up a number of open looks, and that means that we weren't as alert as we needed to be on the defensive end."

Virginia's win came just eight days after BC easily handled the Cavaliers and walked away with a 13-point victory. Bennett recognized his team needed to change how it matched up against the flex offense in order to beat the Eagles the second time around.

"We really had to take a look at how we defended it the first time," Bennett said. "They had way too many baskets in the paint, and they had too many transition baskets and offensive baskets. We really preached that they have to beat us over the top. It was a small adjustment, but it helped us somewhat. For the most part, we made them earn."

And the Eagles could not earn enough to advance past the first round.