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No. 11 Men's Basketball Defeats Seton Hall, 81- 66
Dec 31, 2001
By JIM O'CONNELL
EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. - Kenny Walls scored 20 points and Troy Bell added 18 as No. 11 Boston College opened defense of its Big East title by beating Seton Hall 81-66 on Monday.
Ryan Sidney, the other member of the Eagles' perimeter trio, added 15 points and came up with the play that let Boston College (12-1) pull away.
Bell, who was coming off one of the worst shooting games of his career (2-of-12 against Holy Cross), had 12 points in the first half on 4-for-7 shooting but was limited to 11 minutes in the second half because of foul trouble.
Seton Hall (7-6) got within 60-54 on a jumper by freshman John Allen with 5:32 to play. Sidney, who has been playing since early December with his jaw wired shut after breaking it in practice, hit the Eagles' only 3-pointer of the second half with 5:01 left to make it 63-54.
He then blocked Andre Barrett's short jumper, took off with the ball and found Walls with a lob pass on the break for a 65-54 lead with 4:26 left, and the Pirates never got closer than eight points the rest of the way.
Boston College closed the game by going 12-for-14 from the free-throw line over the final 2:16.
Allen had 14 points to lead Seton Hall, which has lost four of five and also was playing its conference opener, while Barrett had 12. Darius Lane, the team's second-leading scorer, had 11 points, all in a three-minute span of the second half and all but two on 3-pointers. Lane missed the game against Iona because of travel problems, then went scoreless against Fordham in the most recent game.
Sidney finished with six assists, while Bell had five for the Eagles, who
were 7-for-12 from 3-point range in the first half and 1-for-7 in the second.
Bell finished 6-for-11 from the field, and three of the four fouls called against him were on offense. |
