PC’s Weyinmi Efejuku (right) reaches in on BC’s Tyrese Rice during the first half of yesterday’s game at Conte Forum.

The Providence Journal / Gretchen Ertl

NEWTON, Mass. — As he left the TD Banknorth Garden after last season’s meeting with Providence College, Al Skinner felt his team had let a game slip away. Yesterday at Conte Forum, Skinner’s Boston College Eagles almost gave the Friars another Christmas present.

A year ago, two 3-pointers in the final 65 seconds helped the Friars close hard and force overtime. PC dominated in the extra session and escaped with one of their best wins in what was a rocky season. Yesterday, the Eagles led by 12 points (70-58) with 3:18 left but nearly blew another one. A furious PC press, coupled with some atrocious BC free-throw shooting, combined to help the Friars close to 76-74 with just 29 seconds to play.

Josh Southern missed the second of two free throws to keep the door open but PC couldn’t close the deal. Brian McKenzie and Geoff McDermott both missed driving layups with about 12 seconds to play. The misses let the air out of PC’s comeback and allowed Southern to ice the game with two free throws. The Eagles went on to win, 81-76.

“When you have a young team that’s something you go through, that experience of what it takes to make those free throws,” said Skinner, the former URI head coach who’s now in his 12th season in Chestnut Hill. “We’ve been fortunate. We’ve been winning and we’ve been learning along the way.”

While Skinner’s BC team (now 9-2) has room to learn with 10 players in the freshmen and sophomore class, the Friars don’t own that excuse. They are a veteran team that didn’t play like one yesterday. PC didn’t answer the opening bell offensively, taking bad shots, throwing the ball away and rarely pushing the ball on the fastbreak. The result was an awful 31 percent shooting effort and a 35-26 hole at the break.

The Friars gradually improved in the second half but had managed only 50 points with six minutes to play. At that point, coach Keno Davis scrapped his defensive plans and slapped on a full-court press. The result was organized panic, with PC scoring some easy layups off BC turnovers and benefiting from the Eagles missing 9 of 14 free throws in a four-minute stretch.

After their final push for a Houdini-esque win fell short, the Friars were left shaking their heads.

“People are going to miss layups and miss shots,” said guard Jeff Xavier, PC’s leading scorer with 16 points. “The one thing you can blame it on is our effort. We didn’t have it for 40 minutes. We had to play like our backs were against the wall for 40 minutes instead of just three or four when we were down 10.”

PC, which fell to 7-4, has begun games in a similar lackadaisical style too often this season. Davis and the players say they stress fast starts but to no avail.

“Once again, we came out and weren’t playing as aggressive as we needed to be,” said Weyinmi Efejuku, who attempted just two shots and did not score in the first half. “They got a big lead early, and we tried to fight back in the end but it was too late. We just didn’t match their intensity.”

Efejuku’s play crystallized PC’s effort. He shook off a no-show first 20 minutes with 13 second-half points. Instead of deferring to his teammates, Efejuku was isolated more often by Davis in the second half. Marshon Brooks, PC’s leading scorer, also did not score in the opening half, but he rallied for 13 second-half points, with most coming when he aggressively drove the ball to the rim in the final four minutes.

“It’s kind of been the story of our team this year, that sometimes it takes us to get down for us to really play loose and play hard and not worry so much about each play,” said Davis.

The coach, whose frustration boiled over when he was slapped with a technical foul (“It was a well-earned technical”) at the 5:18 mark with the Friars down, 62-51, said his players clearly haven’t adapted smoothly to his offensive schemes.

“Our guys were trying so hard that they maybe haven’t learned quite yet how to create offense,” he said. “Certain guys are trying to take the load on themselves, and they put their head down and drive or take jump shots that aren’t off the pass. We need to have guys that are looking to open up baskets for their teammates.”

With only one nonleague game (tomorrow vs. Bryant) remaining before the Big East wars begin, those are not comforting words to hear for the Friar Faithful.

kmcnamar@projo.com