BY JUSTIN A. RICE
Special to the Miami Herald CHESTNUT HILL, Mass. -- Beating one of the few unbeaten teams in the country Sunday at Conte Forum was no point of pride for Al Skinner.
``If they're expected to go undefeated the rest of the way, then, yeah, there's a lot of pride in that, but up until this point it's only eight games, it's not like it's 25 [games],'' the Boston College coach said after beating the University of Miami 61-60 in front of 5,063 fans. ``But if they go the rest of the way and win the rest, and we're the only ones who beat them, I'll be really happy about that.''
Skinner did, however, hang his hat on outrebounding UM 46-21 -- including 23 offensive rebounds compared with the Hurricanes' four.
``In five years we've never gotten beaten like this on the boards,'' UM coach Frank Haith said. ``That's just been a big part of who we are, so that's what's been most disappointing about the performance today is they slammed us like that on the glass.''
After starting 8-0 for the second time in Haith's tenure, UM (8-1, 0-1 Atlantic Coast Conference), not only dropped its first game but its opening league game as well.
``We were struggling out there, and we didn't execute like we would've liked to,'' said sophomore guard Malcolm Grant, whose shooting down the stretch almost beat BC (6-2, 1-0). ``We just have to bounce back, like Coach said, and the most important thing is we don't get down, stay positive and bounce back.''
After slowly digging his team out of a 15-point deficit with 14:07 to play, Grant sunk a three-pointer with 4:23 left to cut the lead to five and another one about a minute later to cut it to two.
He capped UM's 8-0 run with an up-and-under layup that tied it at 57 with 2:25 left. But then UM gave up perhaps its most crucial offensive rebound to sophomore guard Reggie Jackson.
Jackson, who tied Grant for a game-high 18-points, put back the rebound for a 59-57 lead.
After a timeout, Grant missed a three-pointer. On BC's ensuing possession UM senior guard James Dews snagged Jackson's missed three-pointer but stepped out of bounds on his way down.
With the ball back in his hands on the right wing, Jackson blew past freshman guard Durand Scott, taking flight for a rim-rattling but disallowed dunk. Freshman center Reggie Johnson took the charge with 18 seconds left.
Twelve seconds later Grant missed a three-pointer that was rebounded by -- who else? -- Jackson.
``We were going for the win on the road,'' Haith said. ``We want to go for the win, and I thought Malcolm got a good look.''
Jackson was fouled and drained both free throws to go up 61-57 with two seconds left, and Grant hit a 28-footer as time expired.
``Malcolm was great offensively, he just gave us a spark there in the second half and gave us a chance to win the game,'' Haith said of Grant. ``He put us right there with a chance to win the game. Had we had a couple rebounds secure, we would have given ourselves an even better chance to win the game.''
The Eagles held a 28-11 rebounding edge at the half with a 16-1 offensive-rebound advantage.
``It was a hard-fought game,'' Haith said. ``BC's energy on the glass just destroyed us.''
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