CHESTNUT HILL, Mass. – In a battle between the two dominant Jesuit institutions in New England only one earned its Christmas eggnog.
Boston College, paced by a monster game by sophomore Ryan Anderson, held off Providence to take an entertaining 71-68 affair in front of 6,102 Saturday afternoon at Conte Forum.
Anderson finished with 24 points and seven rebounds.
“They have a lot of size on their team,” Anderson said. “With Dennis [Clifford] being hurt and Andrew Van Nest being out with a concussion I took it upon myself to try to be the force in the paint for us tonight.”
To say Anderson was a force inside would be an understatement. He outscored the entire Friar frontcourt (Kadeem Batts, LaDontae Henton, Lee Goldsbrough, and Sidiki Johnson) by a point, and wreaked havoc for the Friars defensively. Batts led the Friars inside with 14 points and seven rebounds before fouling out late in the second half.
The game was only the fourth game the Friars had played outside of Rhode Island and their first true road game after playing three games at the Puerto Rico Tip-Off. Providence coach Ed Cooley was displeased with his team’s performance.
“I thought they just beat us in every facet of the game,” Cooley said. “This is a bad a loss as I’ve ever coached. We didn’t do anything well today. A systematic team beat an athletic team.”
The game was even from the opening tip. Neither team was able to build a lead greater than six points. The lead changed hands a dozen times and there were nine ties during the game.
In the final minute BC was pushed late in the shot clock but Anderson was able to score a layup with one second left on the shot clock to push the Eagle lead to 69-65 with 23 seconds to play and put the game out of reach.
With Anderson locking down the paint it turned the game into a battle of Providence’s Bryce Cotton vs. BC’s guard tandem of Olivier Hanlan and Lonnie Jackson.
Cotton put on a show. The junior point guard pumped in 33 points, including an amazing seven of Providence’s eight three-point field goals.
“Bryce does that; he is very, very good,” Cooley said. “We couldn’t get him enough shots.”
Even though Cotton dropped points by the dozen the story was Hanlan and Jackson. Jackson only scored eight points, but scored six of them on a pair of three-pointers. Jackson’s second three-pointer put the Eagles ahead for good with just under six minutes to play.
“[The guards] a great job of finding me and sometimes when the defense collapses on me, we find great shooters like Lonnie Jackson,” Anderson said. “I think the guards do a great job of being under control when they get into the paint and making smart decisions.”
Anderson said that Hanlan will be leader for the Eagles in the future and the Quebecois showed why. The freshman pumped in 17 points, including the clinching free throws, and pulled down a game-high 12 rebounds.
Hanlan marked both of Providence’s top freshman guards, Josh Fortune and Kris Dunn, and held them in check for most of the game.
“He’s going to be a dominant player for us once he really figures out when to attack and when to slow down,” Anderson said of Hanlan. “The biggest thing with him is just being under control. He’s an athletic point guard for his size. It’s just about him being under control. When he’s under control I really feel like not many people can stop him and he makes a lot of big plays for us like he did today.”
