On Saturday afternoon, the Boston College men’s basketball team hosted the Syracuse Orange in Conte Forum. A back-and-forth game that featured a lot of late game scoring eventually ended with an Orange win, 79-71, in large part thanks to Syracuse guard JJ Starling’s 26 points.
The first half of the game was a bit of a defensive slugfest on both sides with Syracuse taking a small early lead and then going on a 5-minute scoreless stretch. The Eagles couldn’t get much going themselves when the defense stepped up, but Donald Hand worked his way into the paint to keep BC in the game alongside some three-point shooting by Joshua Beadle and others that allowed the Eagles to tie the game as halftime approached.