CHESTNUT HILL, Mass. — The moment seemed self-contained. Ky Bowman drilled a 3-pointer two-and-a-half minutes into the game and stared right at Syracuse’s bench. It was a player Syracuse hadn’t contested quickly enough having his moment after a long ball. SU would try not to let it happen again.

Syracuse rallied late in the first half to cut a 10-point deficit down to one. The Orange then triple-teamed Luka Kraljevic in the corner, coming close to forcing a turnover. But he pivoted and found Jerome Robinson alone on the wing. The 20.9-points-per-game sharpshooter knocked it down before turning around and celebrating with the BC faithful sitting behind him.

The Eagles (17-13, 7-10 Atlantic Coast) could have eventually scanned the entirety of Conte Forum if they looked somewhere different after every made deep ball. Boston College went a scorching 14-of-27 from 3, with Bowman, Robinson and Jordan Chatman taking and making all but one from deep. It was a season-high in 3s allowed and opponent 3-point percentage for Syracuse (18-12, 7-10), which managed to keep it close in the first half, but eventually lost to the 3-point barrage in a 85-70 loss on Wednesday night.

“Those guards are as good as any guards in the country,” SU head coach Jim Boeheim said postgame. “And Chatman is a good a shooter as you’re going to find.”

Before the two teams matched up on Jan. 24, Boeheim said that he didn’t “think anybody shoots the ball from the 3-point line better than,” Boston College. At the time, the comment didn’t totally seem to add up, as BC was eighth in the conference in 3-point percentage.

The Eagles did shoot the ball well in that game though, going 11-for-23. Four makes came in the first four minutes of the game, though. SU weathered that early storm and got hot on offense, eventually seizing control of the game.

On Monday’s ACC coaches teleconference, BC head coach Jim Christian said that he’d look at how to adjust against the Orange’s zone. The Eagles did just that, spreading the floor out and often times putting one of the guards in the high post. That would force Paschal Chukwu to step up and go one-on-one with a quicker guard, who could find shooters on the wing.

“They spread us out a lot more,” point guard Frank Howard said. “They filled every spot on the perimeter … overloaded us, made our big man leave the paint. I think they attacked (the zone) a lot better and moved the ball a lot quicker.”

The Eagles moved the ball around quickly, several times dishing it out to a baseline cutter for an easy layup which in turn continued to open up the 3-pointers. BC had 19 assists on its 26 made field goals, including 12 assists on the 14 made 3-pointers.

Syracuse limits opponents to 33 percent behind the arc, the fifth-best mark in the conference. The Eagles, though, never shied away from attempting the looks.

On one play late through the first half, Bowman took a pass from Jerome Robinson and dribbled left through a ball screen. Tyus Battle went under it, so Bowman just pulled up and rained home another one.

“We tried to get under (the screens) as fast as possible and get back up top,” Battle said. “But he was hot. We tried to make an adjustment going over the top and run him off better. But he hit some tough ones.”

Hot 3-point shooters have plagued Syracuse this season. Three different players have made seven 3-pointers in a game against the Orange. But those were symptoms of opponents finding the soft spot in the zone and SU being unable to quell one player.

Instead, Boston College unleashed a three-headed barrage that Syracuse couldn’t solve. It dropped the Orange down to 7-10, the first time it’ll have a losing record in ACC play. And it could have potentially dropped the Orange out of the NCAA Tournament consideration.

“They had great ball movement,” Howard said. “They had great ball movement and got the ball inside. They knew where their looks were coming from.”

Published on March 1, 2018 at 1:29 am

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