It was a rough Saturday afternoon for the BC men’s basketball team down in Coral Gables. They traveled to face the 23-6 Miami Hurricanes, one of the ACC’s top squads that is fighting for positioning in the NCAA tournament. The Canes handily smothered the Eagles by halftime, eventually coming out with a 76-54 victory.
It was a promising start for Boston College as their defense held strong to start the game. Miami came up empty-handed on their first four possessions and could only score two points
total through four minutes of game time. Meanwhile BC’s Boden Kapke found an early groove from beyond the arc and in the paint that gave the Eagles an early lead. But before too long, the Canes were getting to the free throw line due to some costly BC fouls and clawed right back into a lead within a few minutes. It didn’t help that the Eagles were mostly just chucking threes because they couldn’t get any kind of open shot near the rim.
Much of the first half went back and forth without much offensive success for either team, though. BC stayed in the game by being physical at the point of attack and forcing Miami turnovers. But they were absolutely helpless on offense, scoring just four points in over 13 minutes of game time, a miserable stretch. Contested three-pointers weren’t falling, Jayden Hastings was missing free throws, and even Kapke was getting blocked in the paint. The Canes finally got a few shots to fall at the end of the period and took a 36-19 lead into halftime.
The second half started with a bit more promise as Kapke, Hastings, and Fred Payne managed to put in some layups and give the Eagles some life. But the hole that they had fallen into was simply too big to climb out of. Miami went shot-for-shot with BC for much of the second half, which would’ve been a great result for BC if they weren’t already down by 20. Boden Kapke finished the game with 18 points, followed by Hastings and Payne with 11, as the Eagles spiraled into a 76-54 loss.
