After a four-game losing streak, Boston College men’s basketball got back in the win column with a blowout win over Virginia Tech, 54-36. Despite putting up their second-fewest points of the season, the Eagles played great defense and held the Hokies to just 11 points in the first half, eventually leading BC to their third ACC win of the season.
BC opened the scoring with a layup by Chas Kelley III, but points were hard to come by in the first quarter. In fact, after ten minutes of game time, the teams had only scored 17 combined points and the Eagles led 11-6. Through those first ten minutes, both teams were shooting under 32% and had missed 10 three-pointers combined.
After a three-minute scoreless streak, the Eagles scored twice on quick transition buckets and took a 15-6 lead with 8:33 left in the half. The Hokies endured a nine-minute scoreless streak until they finally made a layup at the 6:10 mark to cut into the BC deficit, 17-8. With less than four minutes left in the period, Donald Hand Jr. hit a big three to put BC up 22-8 and force Virginia Tech to call a timeout.
The final minutes of the half transpired without much fanfare and the Eagles held a 26-11 lead at halftime. In the first 20 minutes, BC shot 41.1% from the field but just 1-10 from distance. VT shot at just a 20% clip and was 1-8 from three and turned the ball over 11 times compared to BC’s four. Chad Venning led the Eagles in scoring with eight points and eight Eagles scored at least one point in the first half.
The Hokies came out much better in the second half and cut the BC lead to ten with 17:02 remaining. But Hand Jr. hit his second three of the game to push the score to 33-20. VT hit a three of their own with 15:45 on the clock, giving them 12 points in the second half (which was already more than their first half total).
Both teams struggled over the next five minutes, but the Eagles managed to go on an 8-1 run and stretched their lead back to 17 points with under ten minutes remaining. The game was all but finished after that and BC earned a 54-36 win in Conte Forum over Virginia Tech. Boston College shot 45.3% from the field and forced 17 VT turnovers. Donald Hand Jr. led all scorers with 16 points on 7-18 shooting. The Eagles will return to the court on Saturday with a home game against Georgia Tech.