On Wednesday afternoon, the first day of 2025, the Boston College men’s basketball team hosted the Miami Hurricanes at Conte Forum at 12pm to ring in the new year. Despite falling into an early 19-point hole, the Eagles picked themselves up and worked their way back to earn a hard-fought 78-68 win over Miami. It was Boston College’s first ACC win of the season, after they fell to Wake Forest and SMU in December.
BC got into an early hole due to their slow-to-react defense, which allowed Miami’s players cut into the paint with ease past smaller defenders. 6’10” Miami center Lynn Kidd was especially destroying BC’s paint defense with lay-ups and short jumpers, and he had plenty of help from the Hurricanes’ big wings Paul Djobet and Matthew Cleveland, who are both listed as 6’7” guards. Before too long, Miami had claimed a 32-13 lead over Boston College only about 12 minutes into the game. The Eagles offense was fairly stagnant and only managed to put up 29 points by halftime.
But then things quickly shifted in the second half. Chad Venning and Fred Payne led a second half resurgence. Coach Earl Grant had them focus back in on crashing the paint, drawing contact, and putting up shots near the rim. Miami’s defenders began committing more shooting fouls and that gave BC more confidence to keep attacking. And then with the offense finally started rolling, that’s when the BC defense really stepped up.
Miami’s shooters went completely cold in the second half. For a stretch of 9-straight minutes, the Hurricanes scored just 3 total points. Whether it was perimeter shooting, drives to the basket, or anything in between, the Boston College defense stood tall as Miami completely floundered as the game went on. So it was no surprise when BC narrowed their deficit to 2 points within minutes, and eventually took a late lead.
Venning was very efficient in the paint on both ends of the floor, ending the game with 17 points of 7/10 shooting and 3-3 on free throws, while also playing great defense in the paint despite some tough foul calls. Fred Payne began working his way into the paint, too, while stretching the floor, making a couple of threes and drawing multiple shooting fouls to end the game with 15 points. It was great to see some grit from these guys and their teammates to grind out a physical battle and claim their first conference win of the season.