Boston College 59 High Point 33: Eagles Defense Stifles Panthers
The Gotham Classic matchup between Boston College and the High Point Panthers was never in question last night as the Eagles easily took the matchup 59-33. For the third game in a row the story of the game was the Boston College defense which held the Panthers to 33 points (a Boston College best for Jim Christian), along with holding HP to only 22% shooting from the field, and grabbing 29 turnovers.
"I liked the defensive intensity the whole game," BC coach Jim Christian told reporters "It's not easy to do when you're not making shots, it's not easy to keep that intensity up the whole time, but we did it. That's getting to be our identity."
Boston College led from wire to wire and got scoring from a variety of places with Jared Hamilton (14 points) and Jay Heath (12 points) leading the way. This game was important as well because it was the first game that the Eagles were able to survive clunkers from their stars as both Derryck Thornton and Nik Popovic had off nights.
Thornton, who had been the star against Wake Forest and USF only shot 2-7 from the field, but what was more concerning was that he left the game with an ankle injury. Jim Christian didn't seem worried about the injury though "I think he's fine," Christian explained. "The trainer's or doctors haven't said anything to me. We've had a lot of kids limp off. I can't worry every time they limp off. They're tough kids."
Still of concern is the three point shooting, as the Eagles only shot 3 of 25 from beyond the arc. At points during the game it appeared as if they were just content throwing up threes and trying to get through their cold shooting. On the other hand turnovers were much improved, as they only had 13 all game, five which came from the starting five.
Player of the Game: Steffon Mitchell. The junior was all over the floor last night making plays both on defense and offense. Finished the game with a double double ten points and ten rebounds, along with four steals and a block. Mitchell has become the epitome of the new look BC team with the perfect defensive minded attitude.
Play of the Game: CJ Felder's emphatic dunk in the second half.
