The Eagles will have a week to savor and learn from this victory.
In most instances, a win by an Atlantic Coast Conference team over an America East team is quickly played, quickly forgotten.
But when you are a very young Boston College team, which has absorbed losses to teams from the America East (Boston University), Patriot League (Holy Cross), and Atlantic 10 (UMass), you take nothing for granted.
And when you carry a 2-7 record - as the Eagles did entering yesterday’s game against Stony Brook - you use any positive as a building block.
It was rare territory for the Eagles when they led at halftime (28-11), thanks to an amazing 22-0 spurt over the final 11:50 of the half.
The Eagles seemed comfortable with the second-half lead, fighting off the expected Stony Brook second-half surge and coasting to a 66-51 victory at Conte Forum, which sent BC into an exam week break feeling good about itself.
“I don’t think we’ve had a lead like that at halftime with this group,’’ said coach Steve Donahue, who continues to juggle his roster of nine freshmen to find a unit that can play an entire 40 minutes.
“I put on the board [at halftime] 0-0. I told them to win the first four minutes of the second half. I told them to expect that they are going to answer this punch. I thought we handled it well with some real toughness plays.’’
Led by freshman forward Ryan Anderson (10 points, eight rebounds) and freshman guard Patrick Heckmann (18 points, 12 in the second half), the Eagles did just that when Stony Brook (3-5) cut its deficit to 8 points with 8:33 remaining.
“The last couple of games we have played well in the first half and we kind of stopped playing in the second half,’’ said Heckmann. “We stayed focused.’’
Early in the game, it was hard to tell if anyone was focused, much to the dismay of the crowd of 3,426 hoping to witness the end of BC’s four-game losing streak.
BC hardly came out on fire, shooting poorly and committing 10 of its 17 turnovers in the first 10 minutes. What helped was how poorly Stony Brook played. The Seawolves weren’t just bad, they were awful, hitting just five of their first 25 shots. Amazingly enough, they trailed only by a point, 12-11, at that time.
It got worse for Stony Brook, which didn’t score for the rest of the half.
The 11 points was the lowest halftime total for any team in the history of Conte Forum.
The Seawolves improved when guard Bryan Dougher took over the offensive flow in the second half, when he scored all of his 21 points, including five 3-pointers.
A month ago, BC might have collapsed under the pressure. Donahue has worked on his team’s psyche during practice, trying to eliminate any signs of negativity, such as bad body language.
None of that appeared yesterday because the Eagles wouldn’t allow it.
The result was a good effort and a W.
“To play well and to win is critical for this team’s psyche,’’ said Donahue. “I don’t want to ever downplay winning. I want to win every game. It’s critical to get a win, particularly if you haven’t had one for a while.’’
Now the Eagles, who play Bryant University next Sunday, will have a week to savor it.
Mark Blaudschun can be reached at blaudschun@globe.com.
