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Wednesday, January 18, 2006
BC wins, Skinner whines
Boston College 63, Holy Cross 53 -- The Crusaders gave No. 21 Boston College all it could handle in the DCU Center before running out of gas in the second half. HC was tied with the Eagles 39-39 with 12:38 to play. Then BC went on a 7-0 run to take control.

Craig Smith, BC's 6-7 All-America candidate, had a dominate second half, scoring 17 of his 19 points and grabbing 12 of his 17 rebounds after the break.

Kevin Hamilton finished with 17 points, 7 rebounds and 6 steals for HC. Torey Thomas added 16 and Tim Clifford finally showed signs of being the kind of player inside many had expected him to be this season, scoring 11 points before fouling out late in the game. Kevin Hyland, on the other hand, was invisible, playing only 12 minutes, finishing with 4 fouls, 1 rebound, 2 turnovers, 3 blocks and 0 points.

Depth was a definite issue for the Crusaders, especially with Keith Simmons sitting out most of the second half after a recurrence of the cramping problem that hampered him earlier in the season. Simmons played only 23 minutes.

According to the Boston Globe, after the game, BC coach Al Skinner whined about the physical play in the game:
"I thought the game was quite physical, and not in a positive sense," said Skinner, who sniped at the officiating crew for not containing the physical play. "Sean Marshall got smacked in the face, Craig's got a bruised hand, and Louis [Hinnant] has a sprain in his [left] wrist and his arm. So it's not good."
Skinner had more to say in the Herald:
What I think happens at times when you look at two players and one is less talented than the other, you give him some leeway. I think that leeway led to a lot of aggression and a lot of non-calls, and I just have a problem with that. We’ve got guys walking out of here hurt. We’ve played a lot of games and we haven’t played any where three or four guys get hurt in one game. It’s just unfortunate.

“This game didn’t do anything for us if you want to know the truth. I don’t think a game like this gets played very often and played in this manner. If we lose it’s bad — if we win that’s what people expected."
We've seen enough of these Patriot League vs. The Big Time type games to know how they go. We have yet to witness the officials give the smaller team from the lowly league the breaks in a game against a ranked team from a BCS conference. The fact that HC got hit with 22 fouls, BC only 15, pretty much confirms our suspicions.

Ralph Willard had a different take:
"BC's a very physical basketball team. I didn't think it was tremendously overly physical, to be honest about it. They run a very interior-oriented offense and we packed the lane. I didn't think it was physical."
Sounds to us like Skinner, after losing to HC in 2002, going to OT last year and barely surviving this year, is trying to set it up to start ducking his instate rivals in future years.

Look at BC's schedule. The Eagles have 13 wins, but only two over schools from name conferences -- Oklahoma State and Florida State. They have lost to every ranked opoponent they have played and spent the non-conference schedule fattening up on the likes of Dartmouth, Sacred Heart and Texas Southern. No wonder they are 1-3 in the ACC.

In a sidebar about HC's Alex Vander Baan, Lenny Megliola of the Milford Daily News points out, it wasn't a game for the meek.

Maybe next year Skinner would prefer to schedule the Lady Crusaders.
  • Box score
  • Milford Daily News game story
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    • Published at 8:03 AM by Hoop Time.
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