Boston College
Holy Cross
Men's Basketball Defeats Holy Cross, 63-53
January 17, 2006 | Men's Basketball
Jan. 17, 2006
WORCESTER, Mass. (AP) - Craig Smith scored 19 to surpass the 2,000-point milestone, and had a career-high 17 rebounds Tuesday night as No. 21 Boston College recovered from his slow start to beat Holy Cross 63-53.
Smith, the school's first preseason All-America selection, came into the game with 1,998 career points. But he scored just two in the first half, making 2-of-4 free throws and missing his only shot from the field, and BC (13-4) struggled to put Holy Cross (9-9) away.
Kevin Hamilton scored 17 with seven rebounds and six steals for the Crusaders while second-leading scorer Keith Simmons had just two in 23 minutes while battling dehydration. Torey Thomas had 16 points, following some great dribbling by making a 3-pointer at the shot clock buzzer to tie the score at 39 with 12:38 left in the game.
But BC scored the next nine points, with Tyrese Rice making a pair of free throws and then making a 3-pointer to give the Eagles a five-point lead. Colin Cunningham made a nice baseline move for Holy Cross but missed a layup, then Sean Williams hit a basket for Boston College.
Rice drew a charge on Thomas, who ran off the court to the locker room. That's when the game turned sloppy.
Williams missed a dunk on a putback, but Holy Cross botched an open alley-oop at the other end. In all, the Crusaders went 5:58 without a point.
Smith didn't get his first basket until there was 6:18 left, making a baseline move for a layup. He followed that by converting a three-point play to make it 50-41 with 5:12 left, and he followed that by swatting one of Clifford's shots over the Crusaders bench.
Holy Cross still holds a 57-52 edge in the series that began in 1921, but the Crusaders' heyday of Bob Cousy and Tom Heinsohn has long since passed. Boston College has won 15 of the last 16 meetings against its cross-state rival.
BC won last year, 63-60 in overtime.
The game was moved from the on-campus Hart Center, which seats 3,600, to the larger DCU Center in downtown Worcester. But the crowd of 5,524 took longer to get into the game than Smith.
