Filed under: Boston Red Sox, Boston Celtics, New England Patriots
Last night the hottest ticket in town wasn’t the Celtics hosting of the Phoenix Suns. And despite Paul Pierce’s 40 points, including 33 in the second half, the most exciting basketball didn’t involve the Green.
Perhaps the best basketball game that has taken place in Boston this side of the new year took place a few miles down the road in Silvio O. Conte Forum where the 14th ranked Boston College Eagles hosted the 2nd ranked Duke Blue Devils.
Yeah I know. This is a “pro sports” blog. However, with the amount of Boston Professional Sports names attending the game, it would be hard to talk about anything else today. Attending last nights game at the Heights were Sports royalty Mr. Bob Craft, Larry Lucchino, Bill Belichick, Brad Faxon, Tim Russert, John Harrington, and of course Mr. Doug Flutie.
Announcing the game was Mr. College Basketball Dick Vitale, which at first almost made me sick to my stomach. Having Dick Vitale announce a Duke basketball game is like sitting next to one of those parents who ONLY cheers for their child at youth sporting events and would never admit that he or she ever makes mistakes. Sometimes when Dick even talks about Duke University I can barely hear him. Someone should tell him he needs to take the Blue Devil cock out of his mouth before he announces their games. However, to be fair, I was pleasantly surprised. Mr. Vitale did a very good job staying objective and calling the game in a fair manner. He even went as far as saying that Duke was definitely second best to UConn this year. Although he did say he would pick Duke in a head to head game.
The game itself was nothing short of thrilling. Aside from the final minute, the first half was pretty much even. In the final minute, coming out of a timeout, Duke capitalized on a pair of BC turnovers to increase their lead from 5 with 1:05 left in the half to 10 by halftime. Sean Marshall, who had the daunting task of covering J.J. Redick, gave the Duke star fits in the first half, keeping the prolific scorer to under ten points before the break. Marshall brought a great physical presence and incredible intensity to his duty guarding Redick and solidified his role as BC’s top defensive specialist.
In the second half, BC slipped a little finding itself down 18 points at one point to the Blue Devils. The Eagles really showed some testicular fortitude, however, playing balls to the wall defense and clawing their way back with a 16-4 run. They fought back to a 6 point then eventually a 3 point deficit with less than three minutes left in the game, proving to Duke and the raucous crowd at Conte Forum that the Eagles can contend with the best in the country. Despite two questionable foul calls that removed Craig Smith and Sean Marshall from the game, BC still found themselves with chances to tie the game with under a minute left in the game. However, it was Duke’s near perfect free throw shooting that eventually sealed the game, as well as a horrendous no-call on a blatant Sheldon Williams foul on a driving Tyrese Rice in the final seconds of the game. The refs didn’t completely blow the game, but it certainly would have been an interesting final ten seconds had the correct call been made.
Overall, I was thoroughly impressed with the Eagles’ tenacity and ability to compete with the Blue Devils. I was even more impressed at the intense environment that was created by the BC fans at Conte Forum. Despite the loss, BC proved it can and will compete with the best of the best both on the court and off. The Eagles’ basketball team showed its true colors in the 83-81 loss while the BC Superfans showed that Conte Forum is slowly but surely becoming one of the most hostile environments in the ACC.
Now if only the Celts could warrant that kind of praise…(sigh)…
[quick sidenote: Did anyone watch SportsCenter directly following the game? If you did you might have seen a commercial for Black History Month(February) starring Derek Jeter as the featured professional athlete. Now I don’t mean to insult Mr. Jeter’s ethnicity or cultural background, but I was a little confused as to why they chose him to be the spokesperson. Isn’t that kind of like having John Wayne Bobbit be the spokesperson for Viagra? Or like buying Rupaul a Mother’s Day card? I mean, out of the 6,382,096 African American professional athletes they chose Derek Jeter? I am confused.]
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