With Boston College and Virginia both looking to end losing streaks and earn their second ACC win of the season, the Cavaliers came out fast and didn’t let up, coming away with an easy 74-56 victory. The Eagles have now lost five games in a row and are 1-7 in ACC play.
Isaac McKneely began the scoring with a three-pointer and Andrew Rohde made one a few minutes later that put the Cavaliers up 10-4. Chad Venning, who dropped 19 against Duke, scored both of BC’s opening buckets. Both teams were a bit careless with the ball in the early going, but BC’s offense struggled to find anything that worked on offense. At the 12:18 mark, the Cavaliers led 19-6 and were 8-12 on field goal attempts. After trading baskets, Virginia held an eleven-point lead, 22-11, about halfway through the first half.
Unfortunately, a TV timeout did nothing to remedy BC’s poor defense and shooting. In three minutes, Virginia built its lead to 30-11 after two more threes and a jumper. After Earl Grant called a timeout in an effort to slow down Virginia, BC held UVA scoreless for over three minutes but managed to score just four points during that stretch.
The Eagles didn’t play much better to wrap up the first half and entered halftime trailing 41-23. Chad Venning (8 points) and Donald Hand Jr. (5) were the only two BC players with more than four points and the Eagles shot 43.5% from the field as a team. But the Cavaliers, especially McKneely, were red hot. They had a 55.2% field goal percentage and a 60% three-point percentage; McKneely had 12 points, all of which came from beyond the arc.
Things only got worse in the second half. Less than four minutes into the period, Donald Hand Jr. got tangled up with Andrew Rohde and elbowed him in the face. After a lengthy review, the referees assessed a flagrant 2 foul against Hand Jr. and ejected him from the game. Less than a minute later, Virginia’s Elijah Saunders was also ejected for a flagrant 2 foul that was very similar to Hand Jr.’s.
But the strange start to the second half didn’t change much of the actual play on the court. The Eagles struggled to cut into the deficit and Virginia won handily, It was another disappointing loss in a season that is quickly turning sour for Earl Grant and his squad. The Eagles will be back on the court on Saturday in Chapel Hill to take on the North Carolina Tar Heels.