There’s been talk for quite some time that Syracuse don’t deserve the number spot the voters have given them, but it’s hard to argue with an undefeated record. Now that they’ve been beaten at home by Boston College, anyone who has mentioned they’re overrated feels very smart.

Boston College actually led by 13 points with 13 minutes left in the second half, but Boston College dominated the board and matched the Orange in physicality and tenacity, something that doesn’t often happen in the Carrier Dome. After overtime, Boston College came away with the 62-59 win.

It sometimes comes down to just a bad shooting day, which is quite often in college. Syracuse shot 32.3% from the field and 16.7% from beyond the arc. Boeheim decided he’s going to use only 7 players throughout the game and it resulted in fatigue at some point, although keeping up a 25-game winning streak is exhausting quite on its own, especially mentally.

But Boston College of all teams? The Eagles were 2-10 in the ACC going into the game, and suddenly this win gives them the belief that maybe making some sort of insane run in the ACC tournament isn’t out of their reach.

It was an emotional game for us. It’s been incredible for these guys to persevere. We’ve played well in a lot of games. The patch on our chests, toward the end of the game, it was like, ‘We can’t be denied. DK is looking down on us. He’s got us. It’s real emotional. It’s really going to set in in a couple of hours. We’ve been in a lot of close games this year, lost a lot of heartbreakers. We’ve been in this before, so we just had to rely on that. Finally, the ball bounced our way.

Oliver Hanlan scored 20 points, focusing just on that. It was a very big night for Ryan Anderson, grabbing 14 rebounds and adding 4 assists, fighting almost on his own against Syracuse crashing the boards. The Orange got 17 offensive rebounds of the game off of their many bad shots, but an awful night from C.J. Fair (7-of-23), Rakeem Christmas (1-of-6) and Trevor Cooney (2-of-8) was a bit too much for them to overcome.

It was a tight finish, as expected. Syracuse took a one point lead with Tyler Ennis hitting from the line, but a layup from Patrick Heckmann gave BC the lead again with 43.5 seconds left on the clock. Syracuse had a foolish turnover with Ennis unable to get the ball to Fair with 32.5 seconds left, and missed another opportunity as Fair missed on a drive to the basket, with Lonnie Jackson sealing the game with two free throws. The bottom line? We might have a new #1 after the weekend (Florida), and Wichita State are now the only undefeated team.

When you get in enough of these games, there’s going to be one you’re not going to make a play. That’s what happens. At the end of games, you get into enough of these games, you’re not going to win. I’m really happy that we’ve won 25 games. We can’t think about that. We’ve got to think about what we have to do going forward. We’ve really got to get better, and I think we will. It’s been an unbelievable run; I’ve never seen anything like it before. It’s remarkable what they’ve done.

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