The Syracuse Orange dropped the Boston College Eagles 70-56 on Wednesday night, avoiding a fourth loss in five games and improving to 7-4 in ACC play. Here are five takeaways:
1. This team isn't going to give up.
Despite the self-imposed postseason ban, Syracuse isn't about to give up on this season. These last two games -- the loss at Pittsburgh and last night's -- made that clear. Even against lowly Boston College and even if there wasn't much of a crowd at Silvio Conte Forum, ACC road wins are difficult to come by. This was perhaps the most complete game the Orange has played in conference play, and it was certainly the best we've seen the team look since the first half at North Carolina. With the Duke game looming, SU needed that.
2. Michael Gbinije loves playing Boston College.
Michael Gbinije scored a game-high 21 points Wednesday, marking the second time in this season's two SU-BC meetings that he's led all Syracuse scorers. When the Eagles visited the dome three weeks ago, he went 7-of-12 from the field and scored 17 points. Last night, he went 8-of-11 from the floor and 2-of-3 from three-point range. He also filled the rest of the stat sheet with seven rebounds, four assists, and four steals. Just one game removed from what I considered his best performance of the season in Saturday's loss at Pittsburgh, Gbinije might've outdone himself once again yesterday.
3. Kaleb's best game yet?
Was last night the best Kaleb Joseph has played this season? You could make that case. The freshman point guard went a perfect 7-of-7 from the field and scored 14 points, tying his season-high. He played with a motivation -- or at least appeared to -- that we haven't seen much of this season. If nothing else, it might have been an indication of a player we'll see more of next season.
4. And Rak's worst?
While Wednesday's game was Joseph's best of the 2014-15 season, it also served as one of Rakeem Christmas's worst. The center finished with game-highs of 10 rebounds and three blocks, but he also scored just seven points on 3-of-8 shooting and committed five turnovers. It snapped his 20-game streak of scoring in double figures, a pretty remarkable feat. And if the big man was going to have an off night, Syracuse would obviously prefer that it come against Boston College, rather than against Duke this Saturday.
5. B.J. Johnson gets some burn.
B.J. Johnson played a season-high 34 minutes and scored 12 points, the most he's scored since the season-opener against Kennesaw State, when he tallied 19 points. Head coach Jim Boeheim opted to ride Johnson rather than Tyler Roberson or Ron Patterson, who combined to play a total of just 16 minutes. Aside from Trevor Cooney, Christmas, and Gbinije, Syracuse has lacked consistent options offensively since Chris McCullough tore his ACL against Florida State in January. Johnson wasn't phenomenal -- he went just 4-of-13 from the field -- but it was encouraging to see him finally do something.