BOSTON — Some day Boston College's very young team may become a contender in the Atlantic Coast Conference. For now, though, it's learning how to play against the conference's powers.
The Eagles, starting four freshmen, struggled with their shooting and rebounding and lost to No. 5 Duke 75-50 on Sunday night. One of those freshmen, Ryan Anderson, led them with 21 points and eight rebounds.
"It's always frustrating when you execute offensively and you don't get the ball to go in the basket," he said. "I thought it did build up on us a little bit and we'll learn from it."
BC already has shown signs of progress. On Feb. 8, it beat a senior-laden No. 16 Florida State team 64-60 behind 21 points from freshman Jordan Daniels.
"We obviously came out and played pretty well" against Duke, Eagles coach Steve Donahue said. "I thought we continued to execute well through the rest of the first half but we hit a dry spell. ... I thought they did a good job of making sure we didn't get good looks."
Duke started just one freshman, Austin Rivers, and had a big advantage in height and experience.
"We're more physically mature than they are right now," Blue Devils coach Mike Krzyzewski said. "I watched about eight of their games. This game worried me so much and I watched that Florida State game twice and I said, 'these kids can beat us.' And I wasn't trying to tell myself fairy tales."
The Blue Devils had come from 20 points behind in the final 11 1/2 minutes to beat North Carolina State 78-73 on Thursday night. Eight days earlier, they had rallied from 10 points down with 2 1/2 minutes left to beat North Carolina 85-84.
But against BC, Duke went ahead for good on a layup by Rivers midway through the first half, 15-13, led 30-21 at intermission and stretched that to 28 points midway through the second half. Seth Curry had 18 points and Rivers 16 for the Blue Devils
"I was really pleased we got a big working margin, but I'm still worried," Krzyzewski said. "I want us to look good all the time. We got a little sloppy there for a minute and then our kids picked it up again. It's not point differential or anything. Whoever's playing, I want them to be sharp."
Duke (23-4, 10-2 Atlantic Coast Conference) pulled into a tie for the league lead with North Carolina and Florida State with its fourth straight win after a 78-74 overtime loss to Miami. But Krzyzewski doesn't think his team is playing as well as a Top 5 team should, especially after committing 18 turnovers against BC.
"They're a good group. We're just not some type of juggernaut," he said. "We'll have spurts of really good defense. Our rebounding has gotten better. Until today, we were taking really good care of the ball."
