After not leading at all in the second half against Syracuse, Boston College men’s basketball sent the game to overtime thanks to a gutsy three by Fred Payne. But the comeback came up short and the Eagles lost in triple overtime, 95-86.
Syracuse won the tip and hit a three to open the scoring and Donald Hand Jr. made BC’s first bucket of the game on BC’s ensuing possession. Both teams played relatively the same in the game’s initial stages, but BC started 1-5 from beyond the arc and the Orange held a 12-11 lead after five minutes.
After the Eagles took their first lead of the game on a three by Fred Payne, both squads had trouble scoring until Chad Venning hit a jumper a few minutes later. At the 9:08 mark, Syracuse’s Chris Bell made a three-pointer and gave his team a 17-16 lead. Then, the teams traded baskets and it was Syracuse who led, 19-18, before a TV timeout with 7:41 left in the half.
The Orange and the Eagles continued to hit shots back and forth as the half wound to a close, with neither team able to pull away from the other. But the Eagles offense hit a lull in the last three minutes and entered halftime trailing 34-27. At the break, BC was shooting just 37.9% from the field and 4-12 from three. However, Syracuse was slightly better than that, with 41.7% and 36.4% field goal and three-point percentages. The Orange held a slight advantage on the boards (22 to 18) and also outscored BC by ten in the paint (22 to 12).
Both teams came out strong offensively in the second half. Every time BC made a shot in the opening minutes, the Orange would answer right back, and five minutes into the second half, BC still trailed 46-41. As BC’s offense faltered a bit, the Orange stayed strong and pushed their lead to 55-45 with 12:11 left in the half.
The defensive intensity rose as the minutes ticked off the clock and the Eagles crawled back to within four points, 59-55 with seven minutes to go. After a few ugly possessions by both sides, Donald Hand Jr. hit a three that put BC within one. But Syracuse went on an 8-2 run to take a 67-60 lead with under three remaining. A layup by Chad Venning cut the deficit to five points and Hand Jr. hit a jumper with twelve seconds remaining. BC had possession and trailed by three points with just five seconds remaining and Fred Payne hit his second three of the night to tie the game at 67.
In overtime, Donald Hand Jr. hit a three to give BC a 70-69 lead, which was their first lead since the first half. The Orange tied it with a free throw and both teams made layups to make the score 72-72. Chad Venning converted an and-one with less than a minute left to give BC a 76-75 lead. But Syracuse tied it, BC turned the ball over with a chance at the final shot, and the game went to double overtime.
Beadle hit a three, Hand Jr. made a layup, and Venning made a layup to give BC a quick 83-76 lead. But Syracuse battled back and made it a one-point game with a minute left. The Orange tied the game with eleven seconds left on a free throw by J.J. Starling and the game went to triple overtime. Syracuse held a three-point lead when J.J. Starling made a layup with two-and-a-half minutes left that proved to be the dagger and BC lost 95-86.
Donald Hand Jr. led both teams in scoring with 28 points but went just 3-8 from the free throw line. Joshua Beadle added 16 points, Chad Venning chipped in with 11, and Fred Payne had 10. The Eagles shot only 50% from the charity stripe and had 16 turnovers in the loss. BC will be back in action on Wednesday against Notre Dame.