Boston College Athletics
Eagles Overwhelmed by No. 20 Syracuse
June 21, 1999 | Men's Basketball
January 21, 1999
SYRACUSE, N.Y. - Etan Thomas scored 14 points and blocked six shots Thursday night as No. 20 Syracuse ran to a big lead early and beat Boston College 90-51.
Syracuse (13-5, 5-4 Big East), coming off a tough 74-71 loss at Rutgers on Monday night when Ryan Blackwell's last-second 3-point attempt hit the rim and bounced away, had no trouble with the young Eagles (3-13, 0-8), who at times played three freshmen.
Jason Hart finished with 11 points and had three steals to move into fifth place on Syracuse's career list with 219. Eric Williams, playing for only the second time in the last 10 games, had 12 points and 11 rebounds.
Kenny Harley led Boston College with 14 points, while Michael Cotton, who had scored 20 or more points in three of his last four games, finished with 10.
Allen Griffin, who scored all 10 of his points in the first half, led an early charge by the Orangemen, who had runs of 10 and 11 points to build a commanding lead.
Griffin scored seven straight points in 28 seconds, his fastbreak layup with 12:14 remaining in the first half giving Syracuse a 24-6 lead.
Syracuse finished with a 56-36 rebounding edge, had 28 assists and forced 25 turnovers.
Despite its inexperience, Boston College had no trouble breaking free against the Syracuse press. Only trouble was, the Eagles couldn't hit a shot when it was there, connecting on just 24.1 percent in the first half and 36.5 percent for the game.
It was a far cry from Sunday, when they shot 56.6 percent in an 89-77 loss to Providence.
During one sequence midway through the opening half, the Eagles got four offensive rebounds and missed five straight shots from under the basket in a five-second span.
And when they did penetrate, Thomas was there to either alter the shot or block it. All of his blocks came in the first half.
Syracuse led 32-9 on a 3-pointer by Elvir Ovcina with 8:22 left.
The Orangemen led 45-19 at halftime and stretched it to 66-29 on Ovcina's 3-pointer with 11:33 remaining. A layup by Williams gave the Orangemen their biggest lead of the game, 81-41, with just over five minutes left.
By JOHN KEKIS
AP Sports Writer
