On Tuesday evening, the Boston College Eagles men’s basketball team participated in their first postseason game since 2018 when they faced off against the Providence Friars in the first round of the 2024 NIT. BC felt that their season ended prematurely after they gave up a lead to Virginia in the ACC Tournament and eventually fell to the Cavaliers in overtime, ending an impressive run that could’ve rivaled the one made by NC State, who eventually won the ACC Championship. They rectified that loss by defeating PC, 62-57, even though the Friars were missing their best player.
The game started out fairly slow on offense for both teams, as they started to adjust to the NIT’s wider lanes and immediately got physical on defense. PC was missing Devin Carter, their best player and the recipient of the 2023-24 Big East Player of the Year award, so it’s understandable that the Friars struggled to score at times. But PC’s Josh Oduro managed to pick up the early slack, as did BC’s Devin McGlockton, and then the scoring really got started a few minutes in.
The teams went back-and-forth for much of the first half, mostly finding success around the rim and doing a good job of drawing fouls. The referees weren’t really allowing the kind of physical defense that helped propel BC to wins against Miami and Clemson in the ACC tournament, so Earl Grant had to adjust his team’s strategy in real time. The Friars maintained a lead for most of the half, but the Eagles were never far behind despite Quinten Post picking up his third foul with several minutes left. With a few nice steals and scores in transition, the Eagles managed to tie it up multiple times and never trailed by more than four points before finally taking a 1-point lead just before halftime. They led the Friars 31-30 heading into the locker room.
The second half did not begin well for Boston College, as they committed a handful of turnovers and fouls almost immediately and gave PC some extra opportunities. BC’s offense looked to be operating a lot better than PC’s, but those costly mistakes meant that the Eagles couldn’t establish a lead of any kind. The fouling got so bad that Providence was in the bonus already with just 12 minutes to go. Just way too many unnecessary reach-ins and poor decision-making when defending ballhandlers.
Providence, on the other hand, was hardly being called for any fouls. Quinten Post and other Eagles tried their best to battle in the paint, but they just weren’t getting the same calls that the Friars were getting on the other end on shot attempts. BC was definitely fouling more than PC, but PC’s whistle still seemed to be a bit lopsided. Soon enough, Quinten Post picked up his fourth foul and the Eagles were barely managing to hang around in a tie ballgame. It seemed that only thing the Eagles could get going were QP and McGlockton creating looks in the post, because Claudell Harris Jr. was ice cold on his jumpers.
McGlockton wasn’t far behind Post in getting his fourth foul and suddenly the Eagles had to find a way to compete without their two best big men. Mason Madsen started to step up, cleaning up some boards well and hitting a pretty floater off of the glass, and some drives to the paint by Harris and Elijah Strong finally resulted in some foul calls and free throws. Strong especially had a good performance down the stretch, hitting a three, a very tough layup through contact, and making some great effort plays to keep BC in it. But Providence’s Jayden Pierre would not go away, hitting a huge three and helping to facilitate the PC offense to keep it close. The game was tied 57-57 with just over a minute remaining.
Claudell Harris finally got out of his funk with a clutch stepback three-pointer as the game entered the final minute, giving BC a three-point lead. Then Harris came up with an absolutely huge steal on the next possession, breaking away from the pack for an uncontested dunk, but got stuffed by the rim. Fortunately Devin McGlockton was there to clean up the miss, putting in a layup and giving BC a 5-point lead, the biggest lead of the game by any team. Another empty PC possession on the following play led the Eagles to win as the clock expired, 62-57.
Boston College will advance in the NIT to play the winner of Princeton vs UNLV on Saturday or Sunday.