Duke 83 Boston College 82: Thumbs Up, Thumbs Down
Boston College (2-8) could not hold on to a sixteen point lead against Duke, as the Eagles fell to the Blue Devils. Here are some of the high and low points in the game.
Thumbs Up:
CJ Felder: It has been mentioned numerous times on this site, but Felder continues to show massive improvement over last season. Scored 24 points on 10-13 shooting, and hit a big three near the end of the game that brought the Eagles within one. Duke had all sorts of trouble accounting for him throughout the game, leading to some highlight reel dunks and layups. Defensively looked pretty solid as well, ending the game with three blocks. The big stat for Felder, was the lack of turnovers. He has struggled this year with mistakes, and in Wednesday night's game he only had two.
Demarr Langford: In his second start for the Eagles, Langford looked every part of the heralded Top 100 recruit. What is striking about his play is his energy, and as he continues to improve on the offensive side we can see that burst leading to more points. If he continues to grow, and adapt to the collegiate level of talent, he is the type of player you can build a program around. Finished the game with 12 points and 8 rebounds.
Rich Kelly: In his first start with the Eagles, Kelly took advantage of the extra time on the court. 6-9 shooting, including 2-3 from three, Kelly finished with 16 points. Only issue with the Quinnipiac transfer was that he got into trouble foul early. Not the quickest defender, he got caught up and fouled too often, and had to see the bench early in the second half.
Thumbs Down
Second Half Defense: The story heading into this game was that Duke was going to look rusty after not playing for 21 days due to COVID-19 issues. That was clearly the case to start the game. However, once Duke woke up, they asserted their will over BC, shooting 51% in the second half, and really getting Matthew Hurt and Wendell Moore going. On the offensive side BC did what they needed to do, but they gave up far too many easy buckets, and messed up on switches and defenses that allowed Duke to take the lead.
The last offensive set: How does this continue to happen to this team? This is at least the third game Boston College lost because they couldn't get a shot off in the closing set. In the span of a week, BC has now had two chances to tie a game, and in both instances they threw the ball away. Last night, it was Jay Heath, who did not have a good game with seven turnovers, who carelessly threw the ball away sealing BC's fate against the Blue Devils.
Turnovers: This seems like a broken record, but if BC is going to win games they can't be turning the ball over 20+ times.
