Merry Claudellmas
On Thursday night, Boston College men’s basketball hosted the Lehigh Mountain Hawks at Conte Forum for their final contest of 2023. BC came into this game riding a 3-game win streak, but hadn’t played in 11 days since their big win over St. John’s in Brooklyn. Lehigh, meanwhile, sat at 2-7 with 0 wins over D1 teams. The teams continued those two streaks as BC defeated Lehigh, 85-69.
The game started out hot right away for the Eagles, as Claudell Harris Jr. hit 4 three-pointers in a row within a 4 minute stretch before Lehigh could score more than 2 points. BC continued to follow that up with some nice ball movement and rebounding to score under the basket, but their defense was giving up a lot of daylight to Lehigh. The Mountain Hawks were able to walk into a few baskets and kept the game close well into the first half, but the Eagles finally made some stops towards the end of the period and kept their foot on the gas to take a 44-29 lead into halftime.
It was a slow start in the second half as both teams were able to find a few opportunities to score but largely struggled with fouls and turnovers. Claudell Harris continued to lead the Eagles offensively, while Quinten Post started picking up some of the slack as well. They exploited Lehigh’s defense on the inside and were able to score fairly easily when they executed well. So when Lehigh started to take some questionable three-pointers, BC maintained a solid lead.
Lehigh did eventually go back to their offense in the paint and made some buckets, but BC was working like a well-oiled machine by that point and their lead was insurmountable. BC went on to win the game, 85-69, with 29 points from Claudell Harris, 13 points from Jaeden Zackery, and 13 from Quinten Post.
This win brings Boston College up to a 10-3 record, a very promising position for Earl Grant’s squad. They haven’t dropped any of the buy games like they did last year against Maine and UNH, plus they even have a quality win over St. John’s away from home. From here, though, they have to prove they can start winning against other ACC competition. They won against Lehigh tonight mostly because the Mountain Hawks played poorly, not because the Eagles were firing on all cylinders.
BC returns to Conte Forum to host Wake Forest on Tuesday January 2nd at 7pm.