First Round Recap – Chicago Region
CLEVELAND – After an upset in the opening first round game of the Chicago regional at the Wolstein Center, everything went according to plan in the other game between Boston College and Pennsylvania.
The Eagles easily took care of business against the Quakers, 85-65, led by five players reaching double figures for the fourth-seeded Eagles.
Jared Dudley led the way with 18 points for Boston College (25-4). Craig Smith had a dominating performance with 15 points and 13 rebounds. Smith nearly had a triple-double as he had seven assists. Sean Marshall, Jermaine Watson and Sean Williams rounded out the double figure scorers for Boston College with 14, 13 and 11 points respectively.
The Quakers (20-9) had a balanced scoring attack as well. Tim Begley scored a game-high 19 points. Mark Zoller scored 16 points and Ibrahim Jaaber had 15 to round out the double figure scorers for Penn.
But a 20-point halftime deficit was too hard to overcome.
“We did something in the first half you probably have us do before,” Boston College coach Al Skinner said. “Our perimeter game was working because they were looking to attack us on the inside.
“There’s a real misconception that we can’t shoot the ball. It’s not that, it’s just that our interior game is so strong that it overshadows our perimeter game.”
Penn hung real close with the Eagles for much of the first half, but only lead once – the first basket of the game. But with 14:41 left in the first half and the score tied at 13, Boston College went on a 21-3 run to give them a 34-16 lead with 5:17 to go. Boston College would eventually build the lead up to 22 points, 45-23 with 1:42 to go.
“The real key was that we got good looks,” Skinner said. “They (Penn) came out in a zone and we got great looks. We don’t shoot the ball, but we can shoot the ball.”
Penn coach Fran Dunphy said, “They made a lot of shots in the first half that made it look like we needed to change our defensive scheme. You have to give them a lot of credit. They made a couple of three-pointers that we were not expecting in the first half.”
Penn got to within nine at 54-45 with 13:08 to go in the second half, but the Eagles proved to be just too much.
“In the second half when we were making our run, we needed to be perfect each and every time down,” Dunphy said. “We were not quite perfect enough.”
Boston College will meet the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee in the second round at 5:30 p.m. (EST) on Saturday.
Panthers head coach Bruce Pearl is a 1982 graduate of Boston College and admits that playing his Alma mater is going to be different.
“It would be pretty cool,” he said. “It’s been a long time since I’ve been back to Boston College. I’m a huge Patriots and Red Sox fan and I still love the fact that I grew up there.
“One of the things about coaching is that it takes you on a trip… My loyalties are 100 percent to UWM and I don’t think it really matters that it’s Boston College. I always root for Boston College in everything, but I won’t be rooting for them if they beat Penn.”
