Boston College men’s basketball completely collapsed in the final 11 minutes of its game against Southern Methodist on Saturday afternoon. The 26-point loss BC came away with accurately demonstrated the severity of that collapse.
SMU had a 66–63 lead with 11:43 left in the game following a layup from Elijah Strong. But a 37–16 run allowed SMU to completely strip the Eagles (7–5, 0–2 Atlantic Coast) of any momentum, and the Mustangs (10–2, 2–0) beat BC 103–77 at Conte Forum.
With just above nine minutes left, Donald Hand Jr. got the ball in the left-hand corner—right in front of his bench—having no defender within ten feet of him. He missed the wide-open attempt as the ball clanked off the rim.
Roger McFarlane got the rebound and was fouled, setting him up to shoot 1-and-1 free throws which could’ve partially made up for Hand’s missed opportunity.
But that ended in another missed opportunity for the Eagles, and after McFarlane missed, SMU took the ball the other way and scored on a dunk that put the Mustangs up 76–67.
“You get to that segment, you ask the question, ‘What happened in that segment?’” BC head coach Earl Grant said. “[We] allowed them to get out and play fast in an open court.”
McFarlane missed a layup on the Eagles’ next trip down the court, and the Mustangs followed up with an alley-oop in transition that emphasized what had become a disastrous sequence for BC.
“The way the game changed was Boopie Miller,” Grant said. “He took over the game.”
Miller put up 12 points in the second half and ended the game with 18 points alongside a game-high seven assists.
“[Miller is] a guy you constantly have to keep in the back of your mind, even if that’s not your man,” Dion Brown said.
Brown scored a season-high 20 points, topped only by Hand’s 22 for the Eagles. But the two guards’ offensive efforts didn’t cut it, as the Eagles suffered a scoring drought from the 7:59 mark until there was 4:13 remaining in the game.
Despite BC’s dismal play to end the game, the Eagles started things strong. They managed to hang around for nearly 30 minutes, keeping the pressure on the Mustangs. SMU went into the game leading the ACC in rebounds, averaging 42.5 a game, but BC was able to hold them to 11 through the first half.
The Eagles were unable to maintain that trend, however, as they were outrebounded 20–18 in the second half. BC also committed seven turnovers in the final 20 minutes.
“Typically we’ve been good taking care of the ball,” Grant said. “And today we didn’t do it.”
The Mustangs capitalized from the Eagles’ mishaps, scoring 22 points off turnovers in the second half.
“Really hard. Really hard,” Grant said when asked about defending SMU in transition. “That was a major key.”
A final 3-pointer with 32 seconds left on the clock lifted the Mustangs over the 100-point mark and allowed SMU to end the game 11–16 from three.
“We didn’t do what we needed to do,” Grant said. “We did it for 30 minutes, but it’s a 40 minute game.”
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