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CHESTNUT HILL, Mass. — In its last outing versus Boston College on Jan. 10, Syracuse needed to overcome a deficit of 11. The deficit was 14 Tuesday. While the Orange completed the comeback the first time, they didn’t replicate.

Falling victim to the Claudell Harris Jr. 3-point show and BC’s best shooting performance of the season, Syracuse (14-7, 5-5 Atlantic Coast Conference) missed free throws and struggled from deep in the second half in an 80-75 loss to Boston College (13-8, 4-6 ACC). The Eagles snapped an 11-game losing streak to the Orange. After BC went on a 21-0 run across the first and second half to build a 14-point lead, Syracuse trimmed it to as low as two before BC built it back up.

“It was really more about what we didn’t do,” Autry said. “Our defense just didn’t do the job that we did the first time around. Harris Jr. had five 3s. They had 10 3s as a team. I thought that was the difference.”

A Maliq Brown layup off a Quadir Copeland pass narrowed BC’s lead to two. The Orange essentially negated the impact of the 21-0 run. At the same time, it was a fresh start for Harris Jr., who had 11 consecutive points in a span of two minutes to return that lead to double-digits.

Harris Jr. accounted for three of his five triples during that stretch, connecting from the corner and the top of the key. His other two points came off a drive down the right side of the lane, where he blew by Judah Mintz and no Syracuse defender could help in time.

“He just made shots,” Copeland said of Harris Jr. “He got shots, you contest it. He made it.”

Syracuse never went fully away, though. Once BC re-extended the lead, Mintz, Benny Williams and J.J. Starling all made 3-pointers for SU that brought BC’s lead to as low as six with 1:14 remaining. Out of the timeout, the Orange almost forced a steal.

Harris Jr. had gifted Syracuse a rare missed second-half 3-pointer, but Mintz’s subsequent 3-pointer on the other end airballed. It was similar to other chances that Starling had in the game. Starling, who finished 4-of-10 from the 3-point line with 18 points, had a couple of opportunities from deep that just missed.

“We were that close to really changing the game,” Autry said.

What dug Syracuse into the hole to begin with was the ending of the first half and the start of the second. The Orange, who used a 15-4 run to build a 20-11 lead at one point after starting 1-of-7 from the field to begin the game, saw that quickly dwindle away.

Starling’s floater with 4:24 left in the first half was the final change Syracuse saw on the scoreboard until nearly three minutes into the second half. Devin McGlockton, who finished with 15 points on 60% shooting, scored a couple of baskets, with a Mason Madsen 3-pointer sandwiched in between.

On McGlockton’s second basket, Harris Jr. grabbed the offensive rebound and began the transition. Blowing past Kyle Cuffe Jr. on the left wing, Harris Jr. went up like he was going to go for a layup. Instead, the move forced Justin Taylor to jump, allowing Harris Jr. to find McGlockton in a passing lane for a slam, forcing a Syracuse timeout.

BC built a 37-30 halftime lead and picked where it left off to begin the second. On the Eagles’ opening possession of the second half, Jaeden Zackery drove down the left side of the lane and hit an off-balanced floater while absorbing contact. Chas Kelly III blew past Mintz, who had thought he had help underneath. Zackery then drained a top of the key 3 as Autry was left with no choice but to call timeout.

“We lost it, I guess,” Starling said. “We stopped playing as a unit, stopped guarding. They just got whatever they wanted.”

Syracuse changed that after that timeout. It became SU’s turn to control the game by scoring down low inside the paint and making defensive stops — the Orange forced 21 BC turnovers in the defeat.

In very similar plays, Copeland dished the ball to Brown underneath the basket. Brown got his defender to foul him while he made the layup. Then on a different play, Mintz, who was double-teamed, reset the ball to Brown at the top. Brown, who finished with 15 points, saw a gap past his defender Armani Mighty and drove for a 2. The BC lead was now just four with 11 minutes remaining.

Despite generating momentum with the and-ones, Brown missed four free throws Tuesday evening. As a team, Syracuse shot 7-of-14 from the charity stripe. In its game versus NC State, Syracuse made 20-of-32 free throws, playing a role in the win. But a 50% conversion rate from the free throw line wasn’t enough to beat a BC team that shot 60% from the field, represented by the 3-pointer Harris Jr. made to counter a missed free throw from SU.

“You make those foul shots, it’s just a different game,” Autry said.

Published on January 30, 2024 at 9:48 pm

Contact Cole: [email protected] | @ColeBambini