Boston College Athletics
Boston College
Seton Hall
Men's Basketball Falls To Seton Hall, 77-66
February 12, 2000 | Men's Basketball
Feb. 12, 2000
By JIM O'CONNELL
AP Basketball Writer
EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. - It was a perfect ambush game for a team learning how to win.
Seton Hall was coming off road victories over then-unbeaten Syracuse and in-state rival Rutgers.
Boston College was the opponent at home Saturday night and it would be easy to overlook a team on a school-record losing streak.
Seton Hall didn't, however, and the Pirates' 77-66 victory over the Eagles was their fifth straight and eighth in nine games.
"We're really trying to take it one game at a time," Seton Hall senior guard Shaheen Holloway said. "We're not good enough to look past anybody. We just wanted to come out, take care of our business. We don't look at ourselves as a great team yet. We're a solid team that seems to be getting better every game but we realize we have to stay hungry."
Rimas Kaukenas, another senior guard, had 21 points and Holloway added 20 for the Pirates (18-4, 10-2 Big East), who were 15-15 the last two seasons.
"What we've accomplished this season shows it doesn't matter how much talent you have, it's a matter of how hard you work, how hard you play and how badly you want things," Kaukenas said. "We've been able to stay together and we keep getting better and better."
Kaukenas had three 3-pointers and Holloway two as the Pirates finished 8-for-16 from beyond the arc.
Seton Hall built a 22-10 lead within the first eight minutes. Boston College (9-15, 1-10), which extended the longest losing streak in school history to 10 games, got within 24-18 when Seton Hall coach Tommy Amaker called a 30-second timeout.
The Pirates responded to the quick talk with a 16-3 run that started and ended with 3-pointers by Holloway.
Seton Hall shot 48 percent (21-for-49) in taking a 46-29 halftime lead.
"I thought our kids came ready to play. We pride ourselves on being prepared," Amaker said. "We wanted to get out early, stretch the lead and put them in a hole, which we did."
The lead reached 65-42 on Kaukenas' last 3 of the game with 5:50 to play.
Boston College then went on 9-0 run and eventually got within nine points twice, the last time at 73-64 on a three-point play by Michael Cotton with 30 seconds left.
"You could see we were fatigued," Amaker said. "If we had started the way we finished, it would have been a difficult game to win."
Freshman Troy Bell had 25 points and a career-high nine rebounds for the Eagles, winless since beating Providence 67-62 on Jan. 8. Bell was 9-for-21 from the field, including 2-for-8 on 3-pointers. The Eagles finished 3-for-17 from 3-point range.
The Eagles have lost 19 straight road conference games, the last coming at Seton Hall on Jan. 24, 1998.
"Especially on the road you can't start ballgames the way we start ballgames. You're not giving yourself a chance," Boston College coach Al Skinner said. "Obviously we played better in the second half but they shot so well in the first half."
Darius Lane added 12 points for Seton Hall and Samuel Dalembert had 10 points, seven rebounds and five blocked shots.
With several minutes left in the game, the Seton Hall fans started shouting "We want UConn," the Pirates opponent at home Monday night.
"We wanted to come out and play aggressive, jump on them early, take care of business," Lane said. "Now we've got these guys behind us and we can start thinking about UConn."
