Eagles Dropped By Duke

Not a whole lot can be done when shots just won't fall. The men's basketball team fell to the No. 5 Duke Blue Devils at Conte Forum last night 75-50 despite starting off 5-for-5 from the field and building a 13-7 lead early. The Eagles played solid defense in the first half against an offensively skilled Duke squad, and kept running their motion offense well as they found good shots that kept rimming in and out.

"I thought we continued to execute through most of the first half, and then we just went on a dry spell missing open shots, and that just crushed us mentally," said head coach Steve Donahue. "You can't let that happen, but that's what a young team allowed to happen tonight."

Although the Eagles couldn't finish off their solid offensive possessions with points, they stayed in the game for most of the first half because of their defensive effort.

"I was very proud of the way we played defense that whole time," Donahue said. "We guarded what I think is the best offensive team in the country, holding them to like 18 points with three minutes to go in the first half. I thought we did a great job."

Boston College played incredible team defense for the first 15 minutes of the game, holding Duke to 17 points. The Eagles eventually let the mental fatigue of missing so many shots get to them, however, as they allowed Duke to close the half on a 13-4 run. BC was unable to come back from the deficit in the second half, with the offense still finding trouble getting the ball through the hoop.

"It's always frustrating when you execute well offensively and it just doesn't go down for you," said freshman forward Ryan Anderson. "We were just unfortunate that we couldn't get it go down for us, and I think build up in us a little bit."

Anderson led the Eagles with 21 points and eight rebounds while shooting 50 percent from the field. It was his second straight game with at least 20 points. .

"We always say, next play, no matter if it's good or bad, and tonight I feel like we got away from that, and we let our last play affect our next play," Anderson said.

Senior guard Matt Humphrey chipped in 12 points to help out Anderson offensively, but the rest of the Eagles had trouble getting going against the Blue Devils.

"I thought Duke did a very good job making sure Lonnie [Jackson] got no good looks, and I thought they corralled Jordan [Daniels] really well," Donahue said.

Duke guards Austin Rivers and Seth Curry were all over Jackson all night, not allowing one of the Eagles' best threats to get going. The offense also struggled because Daniels faced pressure from Andre Dawkins and Quinn Cook the second he touched the ball, sometimes being denied so hard he couldn't even touch the ball on certain possessions.

BC was outrebounded 45-21 and gave up 13 offensive rebounds while only tallying two of their own, but Donahue didn't consider that a huge key to the game.

"I don't think they dominated the offensive boards when you look at how many misses we had tonight," Donahue said. "It's just a percentage game."

With more maturity, better conditioning, and solid bench production, the Eagles will have the ability to pull off this kind of upset down the road.

"We allowed mental fatigue and stamina [to hurt us] because we guarded really well during that long stretch," Donahue said. "The younger kids were kind of gassed, and we don't have a real deep bench. When you play this kind of offense, you actually have to work real hard to make it work."

Donahue's motion offense thrives off of constant cutting and screening that drains the defense's energy, but also requires a great deal of stamina from his own players to execute well.

"I think what you see is guys going through the ebb and flow of their first year, and they're not as confident as you would hope every single game," Donahue said. "They just don't have the pedigree of success to give them that confidence sometimes."

Sometimes the shots don't fall, and there's really not much anyone can do.