SMU takes care of business vs. Boston College, maintains traction in NCAA Tournament race

UNIVERSITY PARK — SMU’s drive for its first March Madness invitation in nine years gained a little more traction with a 94-70 victory over Boston College on Saturday afternoon at Moody Coliseum. Jermaine O’Neal Jr. provided a spark off the bench with 16 points as SMU dominated in the second half and improved its home record to 15-2. For the Mustangs (19-8, 8-6 in the ACC), the win over struggling Boston College was not an attention-grabber in the manner of Tuesday’s 95-85 takedown of No. 21 Louisville. But a defeat at home to the lowly Eagles (9-18, 2-12) would have canceled out much of Tuesday’s gain in status. Boston College, winless since in the last month, saw its losing streak grow to eight games. SMU closed out the first half on an 11-0 run in the final 2:40 to turn a seven-point deficit into a 40-36 intermission lead. B.J. Edwards hit a pair of 3-pointers in the spurt and Jaron Pierre Jr. brought the crowd to its feet with another 3-pointer at the buzzer. Boston College built its first half lead on 3-point shooting of its own. The Eagles, not known to be feared behind the line, drilled 9 of 20 to account for all but nine points of its halftime point total. The Mustangs were hampered by the absence of leading scorer and assist man Boopie Miller. Two early fouls put Miller on the bench for seven minutes and had only two points and one assist at the break. Miller picked up his third foul in the opening four minutes of the second half, again resulting in a trip to the bench. But his teammates responded with an 8-0 run for the Mustangs’ first double-digit lead at the at the 15:00 mark. The Eagles’ 3-point magic did not carry over into the final half and SMU could enjoy stress-free final minutes. Going into the weekend, SMU was projected to be a ninth seed in the Midwest Region in Joe Lunardi’s ESPN Men’s Bracketology. Lunardi rated the Mustangs’ chances at receiving an at-large tournament bid in the mid-80% range. SMU has advanced to a dozen NCAA Tournaments, but only two since 1993, the most recent in 2017. Eight ACC teams are projected to participate in this year’s March Madness and SMU went into the weekend eighth in the conference standings and No. 37 nationally in the ESPN ratings. Considering SMU’s remaining schedule — on the road for three of its final four games — avoiding a stumble Saturday provides a little more wiggle room in the final two weeks leading up to the ACC tournament. The Mustangs are in the Bay Area to face California on Wednesday and Stanford on Saturday. Five ACC schools are rated as NCAA locks by Lunardi: Duke, Virginia, Louisville, North Carolina and Clemson. SMU falls in the “should be in” category, along with Miami and North Carolina State. California is in the next “work to do” grouping. Stanford’s chances are rated a long shot. After the West Coast swing, Miami comes to Moody for the home finale on March 4 and the regular season concludes at Florida State on Saturday, March 7. Find more SMU coverage from The Dallas Morning News here.