MHERST � One team was playing with
confidence, perhaps the result of six straight wins against
cupcake opposition.
 Monty Mack gets clobbered by Troy Bell. |
Is one approach better than the other? Boston College's 74-65 men's basketball win over the University of Massachusetts can't be ascribed solely to the games that preceded them, but the confidence factor was an undeniable part of how this game played out.
"They're a team that's playing with confidence, and we're a team that's not," UMass coach Bruiser Flint said after the loss in the Commonwealth Classic before 4,672 fans � a Mullins Center men's basketball low � who saw a second-half Minutemen comeback fall short. "The schedule has definitely helped their confidence."
Flint hasn't wanted to use the schedule as an excuse, and yesterday's comments came in response to direct questions about it.
Still, the way BC (7-0) put the Minutemen away raised inevitable questions about whether a team that played six straight home games against teams like Holy Cross (which beat UMass), Brown and Wofford has fed its players a needed dose of success � while UMass is floundering after a series of tough road games against well-known programs.
After the Minutemen (2-7) had cut an 18-point first-half deficit to 56-55, BC guard Xavier Singletary hit a tough 3-pointer with 2:55 left. The basket came with Ronell Blizzard closely guarding Singletary, a senior guard whose comments about UMass last year had lent a spark to this rivalry.
Singletary said he had forgotten all about those words.
But he backed them up, anyway, with 22 points and 4-for-7 shooting from 3-point range.
He hit another 3-pointer to make it 65-55, while Boston College was on an 11-0 run in a 1:33 stretch for a decisive 67-55 lead.
"You've got to give them credit," Flint said. "That kid made two big plays. It wasn't necessarily that we cracked."
"When it was 56-55, I could see BC getting tight, and the life had come back to us," UMass guard Shannon Crooks said. "I thought we were definitely going to win, but a couple of breaks went against us, and it slipped away."
Crooks scored all 10 of his points in the second half.
One break was a ball that got stuck between the rim and the backboard with the score 56-55.
Boston College retained the ball via the possession arrow, and Singletary hit his big 3-pointer.
On its next possession, UMass lost a basket on an offensive goaltending call.
"We can't keep digging ourselves a hole, because it makes every play make-or-break, like today," Flint said. "Then if it doesn't go our way, it deflates us."
Boston College, which hit 13 of its last 17 first-half shots to take a 40-26 lead, snapped a five-game UMass winning streak in Commonwealth Classic games.
BC's 83-59 win in Puerto Rico last year, when Singletary did his talking, was not part of the "Classic" rivalry.
Troy Bell finished with 19 points, seven assists and seven rebounds for the Eagles.
Monty Mack led UMass with 17 points. Kitwana Rhymer had 14 points with 11 rebounds and four blocked shots.
MHERST � For Ronell Blizzard, the reward for a
career night against Boston University was a starting
assignment against Boston College.
Blizzard was in the University of Massachusetts lineup yesterday at the Mullins Center, three days after his nine-point, 14-rebound, seven-block performance in a victory over BU. The 6-foot-8 junior's four previous career starts came last year, including a start against BC in the Puerto Rico Holiday Classic.
Blizzard played 15 minutes with three rebounds, three points and two blocked shots in yesterday's 74-65 loss. Also returning to the rotation was 6-8 Jackie Rogers, who sat out Thursday with an infection in his right foot, but scored seven points in 22 minutes off the bench after making a last-minute decision to play.
UMass coach Bruiser Flint also virtually benched Micah Brand, who played only seven minutes. Flint said the only problem with Brand was that he didn't show up with the right attitude.
"He wasn't ready to play," Flint said. "You've got to play strong out there, and he wasn't."
STAT LOOK:
UMass hurt itself at the foul line, going 12 for 22. The Minutemen had shot 71 percent from the line in their last four games. UMass had a 39-31 rebounding edge, and has won the rebounding battle in three straight games after losing the first six.
ALL EVEN:
The all-time BC-UMass series is now 17-17, with UMass still holding a 5-1 lead in Commonwealth Classic games. Next year's game is expected to be held at Boston College.
TIME OFF:
With final exams this week, UMass will take a couple of days off from practice. The Minutemen next play Dec. 29 against North Carolina at Charlotte, N.C.
"It's been a long two weeks, we've been all over the place and we're tired," said Flint, whose team played its fifth game in 11 days. "We need to catch our breath."
He also said that a UMass game plan which critics have called too predictable will get a long look, and changes may be coming.
"We'll try to switch some things," Flint said. "We have no choice."
CALL HIM AL:
Former UMass star Al Skinner won his first game as an opposing coach at the Mullins Center. As either Rhode Island or BC coach, Skinner had beaten UMass at Curry Hicks Cage, in Providence and in Puerto Rico . . . The easy BC schedule is partly not of its doing: Michigan and Penn State delayed games against the Eagles until next year . . . BC guard Troy Bell had 15 of his 19 points in the first half, the highest scoring half by a UMass opponent this season.
MHERST � Sometimes it's tempting to envy those
programs that lose their star players early to pros.
Ask Edgar Padilla and Carmelo Travieso, who spent their senior season of University of Massachusetts men's basketball competing against the hype that they were the nation's best backcourt. Ask Tyrone Weeks, who was solid but not great as a senior. Ask Charlton Clarke and Lari Ketner, whose final year did not leave good memories.
Or ask Monty Mack, whose shooting touch remains inexplicably missing after yesterday's 74-65 loss to Boston College.
Mack is 7 for 36 in his last three games, and for the year, he's shooting 27.7 percent.
This unexpected slump overshadows the fact that yesterday, Mack passed Lorenzo Sutton to become the all-time No. 3 scorer in UMass history with 1,740 points. He's already the school's career 3-point king, passing Travieso.
Nonetheless, it's been a crummy and baffling year for a team captain who was suspended for shoplifting in October, then injured his ankle in practice. The injury robbed UMass of two weeks of practice time with the player who serves as their offensive focal point, and neither Mack nor the Minutemen have recovered.
Mack thinks the answer is to work harder, an admirable response that clashes with the theory that the Minutemen are mentally and physically tired. He wanted to take extra shooting before Thursday's game at Boston University, but the team bus got caught in traffic, and he never got the chance.
"I think I've just got to put more time in the gym," Mack said after shooting 5 for 19 yesterday. "I had a stretch last year when I couldn't buy a basket, but I worked my way out of it and I'll do it again."
There isn't much choice, because other than Mack, the only other pure shooter on the team is Willie Jenkins, and he's only a freshman.
But UMass coach Bruiser Flint said that even if there were other options, it's too early to start looking in other directions.
He has said he wished he had pulled the plug earlier on Ketner, a bust as a senior in 1998-99. But Mack's case, he says, is different.
"To be honest, Lari would just quit out there," Flint said bluntly. "Monty's just missing shots. I don't think he played badly overall, and defensively, he shut down (BC guard) Troy Bell in the second half."
The UMass offensive playbook will never win awards for creativity, and there's been criticism that the opposition is well aware of Mack's every move � before he makes it.
That doesn't take into account the fact that he has also missed a carload of open shots.
"It always feels good when it leaves my hand," Mack said. "But it's always coming up short. I think I've just got to put a little more arc on it and get it up higher."
He insists the suspension is behind him and the ankle is fine, and Mack has never been a high-percentage shooter, anyway. Entering this season, his career percentage was 41.2, not bad for a guy that every opponent concentrates on stopping, but not great, either.
But on this team, Mack has always been the man you want with the ball in the key spots. For the first time, that's becoming dangerously close to changing, although it can't change much, because the other options aren't great.
Even though UMass beat Iona with Mack suspended, the Minutemen can't win consistently without better shooting from its star. This is no secret at the Mullins Center.
"Monty has had good looks, and he'll come around," Flint said. The question now is whether Mack will come around when it's too late, if it's not too late already.
MHERST - For a brief moment, roles
reversed. Boston College, which entered
the sixth Commonwealth Classic with a 6-0
mark and brimming with confidence, saw its
18-point first-half lead over the University of
Massachusetts dwindle to 1 with 3:47 left.
UMass, which entered with a 2-6 mark, was
assertive and in command.
But just when a partisan UMass crowd of 4,672 became raucous and poised itself for a last-second thriller, the teams returned to the roles they've assumed all season. BC switched first, as forward Xavier Singletary drained a left-baseline trey over the outstretched arms of UMass forward Ronell Blizzard with 2:55 left.
Then Blizzard was called for hanging on the rim at the other end with 2:33 left. Those two plays typified BC's 11 unanswered points over 1:45. It was as if both teams found themselves in uncharted territory, and only one knew to respond accordingly.
That's why BC jogged off the court smiling and waving clenched fists, having secured a 74-65 triumph for its first Commonwealth Classic win, while UMass took another slow trek back to the drawing board.
Singletary scored a season-high 22 points for BC (7-0), which after winning its first road game of the season is off to its best start since the 1993-94 season.
Guard Troy Bell scored 15 first-half points (the most in a half against UMass this season) as the Eagles led, 40-26, and were in command most of the game.
''There is no denying the early success we've had helped contribute to what happened over the course of this game,'' said BC coach Al Skinner. ''The most important thing is that guys believed [in] what we were trying to do and because of that they continued to execute and execute and execute.''
UMass (2-7) not only lost to BC for the first time in a series that dates back to the Minutemen's Final Four season (1995-96), but UMass now has lost two of three to the Eagles and failed in a bid to avenge a BC rout in Puerto Rico last year.
The Minutemen struggled with offensive continuity again, trailing by as much as 37-19 with 1:58 left in the first half. Leading scorer Monty Mack continued to struggle, finishing with 17 points on 5-for-19 shooting.
''I think I have to put a little more arch on my shot, get it up a little higher,'' said Mack. ''It feels good when it leaves my hand, but it keeps coming up short.''
Yet several other players stepped up to get UMass back into the game, particularly junior Shannon Crooks, who overcame a scoreless first half to post one of his best stretches as a UMass player in the second, finishing with 10 points, 4 assists, and 3 steals, despite playing much of the second half with four fouls.
His steal off Kenny Harley and layup with 4:12 left made the score 56-53, and then after BC turned the ball over while trying to inbound, Crooks scored on a layup to cut the lead to 1.
''I just knew we were definitely winning the game,'' said Crooks. ''You could see that BC was uptight, and on our side the life came back into us. Everyone turned the pressure up. Then a couple of breaks here and there didn't go our way and it slipped away.''
UMass still had a chance after Singletary's trey and Blizzard's miscue. But then Harley made up for his turnover with a basket down low while being fouled by Kitwana Rhymer. The free throw made it 62-55, and it was evident BC was pulling away for good.
For UMass coach Bruiser Flint, whose team has lost four games this season after trailing by less than 3 over the last seven minutes, it was an all-too-familiar collapse.
''You can't put yourself in a hole like that,'' he said, ''because now, every play is make or break. They hit a 3-pointer and we get a goaltending call and then they hit another 3-pointer. Every time it comes down to if you get a break, and if you don't it kills you.''
The second trey Flint was referring to came from Singletary with 1:36 left, putting BC ahead, 65-55. UMass didn't score again until Rhymer (14 points, 11 boards, 4 blocks) made a hoop with 1:10 left.
Next up for BC is its seventh home game, against Quinnipiac Saturday. Next up for UMass is North Carolina in Charlotte Dec. 29, its seventh road game.
Until then, Flint said the team once again will try to cure what ails it and capture the kind of confidence BC is enjoying.
''They're a team playing with confidence right now, and we're a team that's not,'' said Flint, ''and that's the bottom line. I think it comes down to the confidence, to be honest. We'll go back and work on some things in practice. It's been a tough road, I'll be the first to tell you that.''
MHERST - The plan was hatched a few
years ago, when coach Al Skinner was
looking over the destroyed Boston College
basketball program.
How to rebuild? And, more important, how to do it with a foundation that could withstand the weight each year of the Big East schedule?
''What we did,'' said Skinner yesterday, ''was try to do it in steps, and a big part of that was to schedule teams that we thought we could beat and would give this team a sense of confidence.''
A year ago, the Eagles were 13th out of 13 in the Big East, and there wasn't a whole lot of confidence to be found.
''We talked about it as a group,'' said athletic director Gene DeFilippo. ''And Al said, we are what we are, a team that did finish 13th. So let's schedule accordingly.''
So they did. St. Peter's, Brown. Marist. Wofford. Holy Cross. Youngstown State. All at home.
And all wins.
Fast forward to yesterday's Commonwealth Classic against the University of Massachusetts at the Mullins Center. BC squandered an 18-point first-half lead and led only 56-55 with 3:47 left.
Crunch time. Gut-check time. ''A year ago,'' said sophomore guard Troy Bell, ''we wouldn't have won.''
But after pulling away to a 74-65 win, the Eagles are 7-0 with winnable home games against Quinnipiac and Vanderbilt before they get a reality check against UConn Jan. 3.
Contrast that with UMass (2-7), which already has played five road games, including contests against Ohio State and UConn, and will have to face North Carolina in Charlotte Dec. 29.
BC is doing it the right way, the way a program that needs confidence as much as anything, should do it. But BC can afford to do it that way because of the Big East's lucrative television contract in basketball and football.
Before the season started, the BC coaching staff was projecting what it could do to get to the magic number of 15 or 16 wins that would guarantee the Eagles a winning season - and almost certainly a postseason berth in the NIT, if nothing else.
That still may be the case, because there are no guarantees with a team that is still searching for its level of confidence.
But yesterday was an example of two teams heading in opposite directions.
BC played like a team that knew it was going to win. Skinner credited the confidence-building schedule. ''But it was also senior leadership,'' he said, pointing out players such as Xavier Singletary, who scored a season-high 22 points. ''The guys believed in what we are trying to do,'' said Skinner. ''Last year we were relying on Troy. This year we're spreading it around.''
And the bottom line is that BC is 7-0. When asked the last time he had started 7-0, Skinner shook his head and smiled. ''I'm not sure if I ever did it,'' he said. ''At least not as a coach.''
So what if the wins are against teams that do not cause ripples in the RPI rankings?
Add the six wins the Eagles posted in an exhibition tour in Europe last summer, and it's a team that is starting to believe Skinner when he tells the players they can be as good as they want to be.
Will it come crashing down with the first loss? Perhaps. But not totally, unless the Eagles put together a long losing streak.
That seems more unlikely to happen than at any time since Skinner came to the Heights from Rhode Island four years ago.
''Our goal has always been to be competitive in the Big East,'' said Skinner. ''I think we're headed in that direction.''
And while UMass hardly can be considered an elite team anymore, beating the Minutemen on their home court, handling the challenge of the second-half UMass rally while actually pulling away at the end, will only add to the Eagles' confidence.
With their success, the Eagles hope to bring back the fans.
There was a time when BC basketball was not a good value for the dollar.
That no longer is the case. In a town where winners are harder and harder to find at any level, BC has proven to be the exception - even if it turns out to be temporary.
MHERST - ``It's about time, BC.''
The words came - presumably from a UMass fan - at the Mullins Center yesterday after Boston College's 74-65 win over the Minutemen - the Eagles' first victory in six Commonwealth Classic tries. And, as far as the undefeated BC players were concerned, it was about time.
 The Eagle flies higher: Eric Williams gets stuffed. |
BC's six-game losing streak against UMass officially ended in last year's Puerto Rico Holiday Classic, when the Eagles hammered the Minutemen by 24 points. But that wasn't the Commonwealth Classic, where Gov. Paul Celucci gives out the Cup. Yesterday was - and the surprising Eagles (7-0) went on the road for the first time this year and survived a wild finish.
BC led by as many as 18 points, but UMass cut the deficit to 56-55 with 3:35 to play on back-to-back baskets from Shannon Crooks. The Minutemen pulled away with an 11-0 run, however, as Singletary hit a pair of 3-point bombs and Harley converted an old-fashioned three-point play.
After last year's win in Puerto Rico, Singletary promised the Cup would belong to BC the next time the teams played. Beleaguered UMass coach Bruiser Flint brought the quote up after winning at BU Thursday - and Singletary came out and delivered with his predicition on the line yesterday.
``I remember saying it, but I forgot about it until before the game (when someone brought it up),'' Singletary said after scoring a season-high 22 points. ``I kind of used it as motivation, but we were fired up from the start anyway.''
Fired up enough to shake off some early cold shooting to blow out to a 37-19 lead with two minutes left in the first half. The lead was 14 at the break and 13 when Harley scored 2:25 into the second half.
But BC then went 6:19 between points and 7:15 between baskets. The Eagles did play defense during this stretch, with neither team scoring for 3:14 at one point. UMass was still able to hang around, taking advantage of cold shooting by BC's Troy Bell.
With BC up by four, Singletary hit a trey and Beerbohm scored in tight to stem the first tide - and BC seemed to put it away when Uka Agbai went up for a two-hand slam around the five-minute mark. It would have made the lead 11, but Agbai missed and UMass would get to within 56-55 on the second straight Crooks basket with 3:35 left. That's when BC went on its big run, with freshman Ryan Sidney (nine points in 24 minutes) also playing a big part.
``Those are our seniors and it's real important to have senior leadership,'' said Skinner, the former UMass star who raised his record against his alma mater to 4-21. ``There's no getting away from that - seniors are real important because they know what to do in those situations.''
Harley had nine points and Beerbohm added four points and four rebounds. But the day really belonged to Singletary.
`` `X' played very well,'' said Bell, who didn't hit a field goal in the second half but never stopped passing. ``He's a senior. That's his job. He's got to step up.''
Bell had 15 points in the first half and, after getting into some ``inner-city'' tangles with Monty Mack - verbal and physical - went 0-for-6 in the second half. But he also had four assists and no turnovers in the half.
``We kept our composure,'' said Bell, who finished with 19 points and seven rebounds. ``That was the biggest thing.''
MHERST - The UMass Minutemen don't have to be lectured on how
to stage a comeback.
One of the few positives to come out of UMass' 2-7 start is the fact that the Minutemen have generally been able to make a game competitive after digging a familiar first-half hole.
Not that it translates into wins, with yesterday's 74-65 loss to Boston College the latest example of how hard work can routinely be flushed away.
``You can't keep digging yourself into a hole, because then you have to keep trying to climb out,'' said UMass coach Bruiser Flint. ``When that's what you have to do, then it comes down to you needing to get a break.''
The Minutemen thought they had climbed out of the hole yesterday when point guard Shannon Crooks capped a 9-2 run by draining a runner in the lane that cut BC's lead to 56-55 with 3:47 left.
But Xavier Singletary, who carried the Eagles on his back in the second half, came back to drain a wide-open trey for a 59-55 edge. UMass came right back, with Kitwana Rhymer grabbing a Winston Smith miss and going back up strong with an apparent hoop, but the basket was whistled off.
Ronnell Blizzard, in attempting to time the rebound of Rhymer's shot, was caught grabbing the rim.
BC's Kenny Harley drove for a three-point play at the other end, followed by another Singletary 3.
The Minutemen, who had fought back from an 18-point (37-19) first-half deficit to pull within a point with 3:47 left, were cooked.
Deflation had set in. Again.
``We cut it to one point, and then they came back and hit a 3,'' said Flint. ``Then we come back, attack the basket, and get called for a goaltend, and then they come back with another big shot. That stuff just deflates you. Every play becomes a back-breaker when you're in a situation like that.''
Monty Mack, who led UMass with 17 points, said the Minutemen need to be better prepared for crunch time.
``We just have to do situations in practice to get used to it, like, `OK, the maroon team is ahead by four points with two minutes left, what do you do?' '' said Mack. ``It was a very aggressive game out there. We went out and gave it our all. Our problem is that we have to understand that we have to do it for two halves.''
They now have an eternity to contemplate that problem. The Minutemen, who don't play again until Dec. 29 at North Carolina, will take a break for finals this week before attempting to tackle their problems again.
But yesterday's close call will be hard to forget.
``I just knew, definitely, that we were going to win after that shot,'' Crooks said of cutting the BC lead to 56-55. ``You could see that BC was uptight at that point, and we were pumped up. It looked good, and then a couple of things didn't go our way.''
Even this early in the season, it sounds like an old story.
MHERST - Boston College coach Al Skinner spent several minutes
with beleaguered UMass counterpart Bruiser Flint after yesterday's
74-65 BC win at the Mullins Center.
Words of encouragement to a friend? ``Yeah, of course,'' Skinner said. ``He's my man. I let him win all those other years so things would keep going for him. Now, it's my turn.''
And UMass alum Skinner knows what Flint is going through. He knows the people in Western Mass. measure success in relation to the John Calipari era, and he thinks that's unfair.
``There are some limitations (at UMass),'' he said. ``They're not judging them in their own context.''
Skinner says UMass is good, despite a 2-7 record.
``You can't tell me every coach that has played against them hasn't recognized that's a good basketball team,'' he said. ``I'm happy with this win but I could just as easily have accepted the loss because I know this is a very good basketball team.''
Bell rings true
Just by looking at Troy Bell's numbers, one can see his continued maturity with the Eagles.
Last year, he had 102 turnovers and 56 assists as a freshman. Through seven games, he has 32 assists and 11 turnovers.
Bell downplayed his verbal and physical battle with Monty Mack, saying it was ``fun.''
Skinner had his own take on the one-on-one jawing.
``The nice thing that he did was - yeah he got caught up - but after he realized, `OK, I have to settle down,' '' Skinner said of Bell. ``He ran our team and he gave us direction that we needed, he handled the basketball. He didn't make it personal. To me, that's tremendous maturity.''. . .
BC used only eight players, including Ludmil Hadjisotirov, who spelled Bell for two minutes in each half. . . . BC, matching its 7-0 start of 1993-94, can go to 8-0 for the first time since 1984-85 with a win over Quinnipiac Saturday.
Back to Conte?
Even though nothing is official and there is still one series date to be played at the FleetCenter, UMass athletic director Bob Marcum said this game will be played back at BC next season. There has been some talk the Fleet would like to get both in a doubleheader against other teams (Calipari and Memphis playing UMass?) but neither Marcum nor BC counterpart Gene DeFilippo acknowledged there was anything to it.
The crowd, which included UMass president William Bulger, was just an announced 4,672 - a new Mullins Center-low for a second straight game (4,718 against Providence on Dec. 7).
Mack off the mark
Mack passed Lorenzo Sutton to become the third-leading scorer in UMass history with 1,740 career points, courtesy of his 17-point effort yesterday. Not that this is what people will rememeber most about Mack's game.
Instead, they'll remember the 5-for-19 effort from the floor - yet another ungodly shooting performance from a player in a major slump. Mack is now shooting .277 (33-for-119) for the season, though that number has been far worse lately. He has now shot 19-for-74 (.257) over the last five games, 13-for-55 (.236) over his last four and 7-for-36 (.194) over his last three.
Micah Brand lasted only seven minutes yesterday, and it wasn't because of the flu. ``I hope he had the flu, maybe that's an explanation,'' said Flint. ``He just wasn't ready to play. We started (Ronnell Blizzard) because I felt he matched up better with Singletary. But I didn't think that (Brand) played well against BU, either.'' . . . Jackie Rogers returned from a one-game absence (infected foot) and saw action off the bench.
MHERST - With 3:47 left Sunday,
the 4,672 fans in the Mullins Center
were on their feet cheering Shannon
Crooks' one-hander in the lane that
brought the University of Massachusetts
within one of Boston College at 56-55.
 Monty Mack cuts down Troy Bell's options. |
Xavier Singletary continued to enjoy playing the Minutemen, as he led the Eagles with 22 points, including two big 3-pointers during the game-clinching run. He had 26 in BC's win over UMass last year in Puerto Rico. Troy Bell added 19 as Boston College (7-0) remained undefeated.
"Xavier Singletary hit big shots," UMass coach Bruiser Flint said after the game. "He hit the big three with a hand in his face. You have to give him credit for that."
The Minutemen (2-7) get an 11-day break for the holidays and final exams before returning to action at 9 p.m. Dec. 29 in Charlotte, N.C., where they will face North Carolina in the Hardee's Tournament of Champions.
Despite shooting 5-for-19, Monty Mack led the Minutemen with 17 points. The total gave him 1,740 points in his career moving him into third place on UMass' scoring chart, passing Lorenzo Sutton (1,731). Next up is Lou Roe's 1,905 points.
"I think I have to put a little more arc on my shot," Mack said. "My shot's just going flat. I'll work my way out of it."
 Kit Rhymer gets ready to rock. |
BC led from tip to buzzer. Its lead didn't stretch beyond three points in the first 10 minutes of the game, but taking advantage of sloppy UMass ball-handling (11 first-half turnovers) and more Mack shooting struggles, the Eagles rode Bell's 15 first-half points to a double-digit lead, 22-12, with 6:39 to go in the half.
Breaking the 10-point plateau seemed to ignite the BC attack. The Eagles built their lead as large as 18 points at 37-19 with 1:59 remaining.
A 3-pointer and a layup by Mack and jumper by Winston Smith comprised a 7-0 UMass run that slashed their deficit to 37-26 with 40 seconds left, but Kenny Harley buried a trey with four ticks remaining on the clock to give the visitors a 40-26 advantage at intermission.
The Minutemen's blueprint this year has often been to dig themselves into a big hole in the first half, and then try to climb out in the second. They've yet to be successful, and Sunday was no exception.
"You can't keep digging yourself a hole and trying to pull yourself out of it," Flint said. "Then every play becomes make or break."
UMass didn't help its quest much by missing its first six free throws of the half, but it nibbled at the BC lead anyway.
Shannon Crooks sparked the Minutemen at both ends of the floor. He scored all 10 of his points after halftime and had three assists and no turnovers in the same stretch.
He produced half the points in UMass' 8-0 run that pulled the home team within striking distance at 44-39 with just under 12 minutes left.
The Eagles built the lead back to nine points at 56-47, but Crooks and Mack scored four points each in another 8-0 run that made it 56-55.
"I just knew we were going to win the game then," Crooks said. "You could see BC get uptight. The light came back into us. But a couple of breaks didn't go our way and it slipped away from us."
Out of an official's timeout, Singletary hit a three from the corner to stop UMass' momentum. Harley followed with a three-point play and Singletary delivered the dagger with another three, as the once excited crowd was silenced.
"We just wanted to stay calm," Singletary said. "Last year if we faced a run like that we would have folded."
MHERST - After erasing a 14-point
halftime deficit to pull within one of
Boston College, 56-55, with 3:07 to
play in the game, the University of
Massachusetts basketball team let
another chance to right its ever-listing
ship slide out the back door of the
Mullins Center.
 Winston Smith tries to call timeout so Jackie Rogers doesn't get tied up. |
Why was Boston College able to succeed where UMass failed?
"They're (Boston College) a team that's playing with a lot of confidence right now," UMass coach Bruiser Flint said. "We're a team that's not."
Thanks to a cupcake-laden non-conference schedule featuring such nobodies as Brown University, Wofford and Youngstown State, Boston College has been able to enjoy the warm fuzzies that go along with simply winning basketball games.
UMass, on the other hand, has taken its "play anybody, anywhere, anytime," attitude on the road, criss-crossing the country to no avail, and losing badly to non-conference heavies Oregon and Connecticut, and getting nipped by Ohio State. No warm fuzzies.
Visibly worn after Sunday's loss, slouched in his chair with his tie loosened, Flint summed up the state of hoop affairs in Amherst.
"We need to catch our breath, because right now, everybody is struggling a little bit," Flint said. "We can't keep digging ourselves a hole and try to come back."
Though he was literally talking about the margins by which his team has fallen behind in the first halves of games (16 against UConn, 13 against Ohio State, and 10 against Marquette), he could have been talking metaphorically about the hole dug by UMass' inspired, if not unrealistic, non-conference schedule.
Fading are those Final Four memories, and the Minutemen are dangerously close to becoming an "also ran" on the national hoop scene. Yet UMass still plays a top 25 schedule, currently ranked ninth-toughest in Division 1.
Boston College, on the other hand, has been realistic about its fall from grace. Aside from a Billy Curley-led Elite Eight appearance in 1994, and few good Scoonie Penn-led years after that, not much has gone right for the Boston College basketball program.
Realizing that winning games against mediocre opponents is more useful than getting battered on national television, the Eagles scheduled accordingly, and the result is a team brimming with confidence. In the crucial two-minute stretch in the second half, that confidence won the game.
"There's no denying that the early success we've had contributed to what happened during the course of this game," Boston College coach Al Skinner said. "They guys believe in what we're trying to do, and because of that they continue to execute."
After finishing last in the Big East a season ago, Boston College is set to at least improve on that dismal showing. Winning seven games in a row is a step in the right direction.
"Our early success was important to mold our season," Singletary said. "We wanted to get out of the gates running."
As for UMass, things could get worse, with games against the College of Charleston and North Carolina at the end of the month.
With Atlantic 10 play on the horizon, however, Flint knows there is also plenty of time for things to get better.
"It's been a long road, but we still have a long road to go," Flint said. "We've still got time."
All clips in MPEG format.
Monty Mack feeds an open Winston Smith. (file size = 176k)
The crowd goes wild as the BC lead was trimmed to 1 late in the came. (136k)
Make a little noise. (128k)
From this pretty shot you'd never know this was Micah Brand's only basket. (144k)
Kit Rhymer gets the offensive board and hits the chippy. (144k)
Monty Mack had his stroke down on this one, but went 5-19 collectively for the game. (256k)
Jackie Rogers feeds Shannon Crooks cross-court. (192k)
Winston Smith sneaks in and cleans up. (168k)
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| Boston College Eagles | 74 |
| Massachusetts Minutemen | 65 |
| The Commonwealth Classic at the Mullins Center | |
BOSTON COLLEGE (74)
fg ft rb
min m-a m-a o-t a pf tp
Walls 27 1-4 2-2 0-4 3 2 4
Singletary 35 8-14 2-3 1-4 0 4 22
Agbai 22 3-7 1-1 0-2 0 4 7
Bell 36 5-13 8-10 3-7 7 2 19
Harley 30 3-5 2-3 0-3 2 4 9
Hadjisotirov 4 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0
Beerbohm 22 2-4 0-0 0-4 0 0 4
Sidney 24 4-8 1-4 2-3 3 3 9
_______________________________________________
TOTALS 200 26-55 16-23 6-27 15 19 74
_______________________________________________
Percentages: FG-.473, FT-.696. 3-Point Goals:
6-16, .375 (Walls 0-2, Singletary 4-7, Bell 1-4,
Harley 1-2, Sidney 0-1). Team rebounds: 4.
Blocked shots: 5 (Agbai 4, Beerbohm). Turnovers:
14 (Singletary 5, Sidney 3, Harley 2, Agbai,
Beerbohm, Bell, Walls). Steals: 10 (Bell 3, Agbai
2, Sidney 2, Beerbohm, Harley, Singletary).
MASSACHUSETTS (65)
fg ft rb
min m-a m-a o-t a pf tp
Blizzard 15 1-2 1-2 2-3 0 4 3
Smith 33 3-4 0-0 3-6 0 1 6
Rhymer 34 6-11 2-3 4-11 0 3 14
Mack 39 5-19 5-8 1-6 3 4 17
Crooks 25 5-9 0-0 0-1 4 4 10
Depina 17 2-4 1-2 1-3 2 4 6
Rogers 22 2-4 3-6 1-4 0 3 7
Jenkins 6 0-0 0-1 0-0 0 0 0
Williams 2 0-1 0-0 0-1 0 0 0
Pugh 1 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 1 0
Brand 6 1-3 0-0 0-0 0 0 2
_______________________________________________
TOTALS 200 25-57 12-22 12-35 9 24 65
_______________________________________________
Percentages: FG-.439, FT-.545. 3-Point Goals:
3-10, .300 (Smith 0-1, Mack 2-7, Crooks 0-1,
Depina 1-1). Team rebounds: 4. Blocked shots: 8
(Rhymer 4, Blizzard 2, Rogers, Brand). Turnovers:
17 (Smith 5, Depina 3, Brand 2, Crooks 2,
Blizzard, Mack, Rhymer, Rogers). Steals: 9
(Crooks 3, Rogers 2, Blizzard, Depina, Jenkins,
Mack).
__________________________________
Boston College 40 34 - 74
Massachusetts 26 39 - 65
__________________________________
Technical fouls: None. A: 4,672. Officials: Jim
Burr, John Cahill, Donnie Gray.