Coming off of their most impressive win of the season against Florida State, the Notre Dame hoops team traveled to Boston for the first of their two annual matchups against the Eagles. It was supposed to be the beginning of a much easier stretch for the Irish, who have faced the most difficult conference strength of schedule in the country to this point. However, a much-improved Boston College team had no interest in rolling over and making it easy for Notre Dame.

The Eagles came out absolutely on fire, with freshman guard Ky Bowman pouring in 3 deep balls within the first 4 minutes. The Irish defense seemed to mimic the lack of energy in the sparsely populated Conte Forum, repeatedly failing to rotate and allowing multiple open lay-ups. While their chief problems were on the defensive side of the ball, the Irish also had their struggles offensively. Irish shooters often stepped into the first open look they got, and they found themselves front-rimming a good deal of open looks.

With BC pushing their lead to a game-high 13 points in the final minutes of the first half, the threat of losing to a 9-17 team began to appear quite real to the Irish. Naturally, they turned to the perpetually unfazed Matt Farrell, who poured in a couple of 3’s on the last two Irish possessions. Despite this brief momentum switch, Garland Owens threw in a deep 3 to end the half. The Eagles entered the break with a whopping 49 points, and a deserved 10-point lead over the sluggish Irish.

In the second half, the Irish finally started to show their class. The move to a zone defense stymied a BC offense that couldn’t miss in the first half, allowing the Irish to finally cut into their lead. Two more Farrell 3’s and an emphatic Bonzie Colson tip-dunk were key to a 15-1 Irish run that allowed Notre Dame to finally seize a lead.

Although the Irish grabbed a lead that they would ultimately never relinquish, they weren’t able to put away the Eagles in any sort of satisfying fashion. VJ Beachem, while having a decent game overall, missed a couple of wide-open potential daggers from deep. BC was able to reel the Irish all the way within 2 in the final minute of the game. A Steve Vasturia missed 3 could have allowed BC a chance to tie or take the lead, but Rex Pflueger soared in to keep the rebound alive. It ultimately ended up in VJ Beachem’s hands, and he knocked down 2 free throws to push the Irish lead to 4. BC couldn’t pull off anything miraculous in the final seconds, and the Irish continued to make free throws to end up with an 8-point victory.

AVOIDING A LET-DOWN

Mike Brey has bemoaned the crowded Irish schedule over the past handful of days, as this was the 4th game the Irish played in the last 10 days. While he has combated this with shortened practice times, the Irish nonetheless looked completely devoid of energy in the first half. I’m not sure if it was tired legs, underestimating the opponent, or some combination of both, but the Irish needed to take a couple of punches before they stepped it up tonight.

BC deserves a lot of credit for the way the played tonight. The brightly-haired freshman Ky Bowman was particularly impressive, dropping 29 on the Irish on 5-11 shooting from deep. While his backcourt mate Jerome Robinson had an off-night, the Eagles seem to have the talent to escape the basement of the ACC when their young guards mature. The Eagles ended up with 18 assists on their 25 made field goals, and shot very well, with 47/40/82 splits on the night.

The Irish were able to do just enough to overpower this strong offensive showing from BC. Bonzie Colson, coming off a National Player of the Week award, had another effective night, shooting 9-12 on the way to 20 points and 6 boards. Matt Farrell and VJ Beachem led the way for the Irish from three-point range, shooting 5-11 and 4-10 on deep balls respectively. Steve Vasturia did not have a good night shooting the ball, but he flashed some of his distribution skills to make for an impressive 14-6-7 line.

LINEUP TINKERING CONTINUES

Mike Brey altered his starting lineup for the fourth consecutive game, opting for defensive specialist Rex Pflueger to replace TJ Gibbs. Rex wasn’t at his best in the first half, allowing Ky Bowman a few too many open looks and making some poor decisions offensively. Brey switched things up, coming out of halftime with Gibbs accompanying the “Big 4.” TJ struggled from the field, missing all 4 of his attempts, but he continued to get to the line and provide energy defensively, coming up with 3 steals in his 14 minutes. Ultimately, Pflueger closed the game out with some clutch plays. We’ll see if Brey ends up settling in on a particular lineup, or if the 5th spot continues to be a game of musical chairs. Brey seems to like both Gibbs and Pflueger’s energy off the bench, and the 5th member of the lineup is often just tasked with staying out of the way of the Big 4.

Austin Torres did some nice things in his 13 minutes. Despite his lack of box score contributions, the 2-big lineup with he and Colson was key to slowing down BC’s offense. While Torres offers nothing offensively, this zone defense with 2 bigs might be something that Brey goes back to when the Irish defense is hemorrhaging points. Martinas Geben offered just a 1-minute cameo, and has apparently fallen out of the Irish’s 7-man rotation.

We also had a Matt Ryan sighting! Ryan did what he does best, knocking down a 3 from the top of the key for his first bucket since the Virginia game. However, he then showed some of his more egregious flaws, with an ugly hack on defense and a poor turnover on an ill-advised pass.

STILL IN THE ACC RACE

The Irish get to rest for quite some time after this one. Their matchup at NC State on Saturday will be their only game action for the next 10 days. While we don’t want to count our chickens before they hatch (especially after an effort like tonight), the Irish will certainly be favored in each of their next 3 games, opening up the possibility to get to 12-5 in the ACC. While the Irish currently sit in a 3-way tie for 4th in the league, many of the teams ahead of the Irish have brutal finishes to their conference schedule. For example, UNC, the only team left with 3 losses, will have to face Duke, Louisville, and Virginia twice before all is said and done.

Hopefully, the Irish can have some fun watching the attrition above them in the standings. Ultimately, I think someone will be able to escape from the meat grinder at 13-5. That would mean the Irish would have to win out, including the tough away game at Louisville, to grab a share of the regular season title. That combination of events may be unlikely, but it’s fun that the Irish are still in the discussion. More important, perhaps, is that the attrition above should give the Irish a decent shot at a top-4 seed (and the double-bye that comes with it) at the ACC tournament in Brooklyn.

These guys know what a double bye can lead to in March.