English
Español
On Wednesday evening, Boston College defeated Wake Forest 68-67.
It was an ugly first five minutes for both teams. Fred Payne missed three quick shots, while the Eagles turned the ball over multiple times. Wake Forest was arguably worse, connecting on only one of their first eight shots and giving up multiple second-chance opportunities. Star sophomore Juke Harris kept Wake afloat early, collecting their first eight points. Meanwhile, Donald Hand Jr. returned to action for the Eagles and promptly connected from downtown and helping spur an 11-8 advantage at the second media timeout.
The next five minutes saw BC’s offense get even uglier. Fred Payne and DJ Hand combined began the night shooting 2-11. Rather than take advantage of BC’s significant size advantage in the paint, the Eagles bombed away from deep — nine of their first 19 shots were from deep, and only one was a make. On the other end of the floor, Hastings picked up a quick second foul with a bad, over-aggressive closeout on a 3-point shooter.
Wake Forest was able to capitalize and build a small lead, but their offense continued to scuffle as well; Juke Harris received very little help from his teammates. He did not need much, however; he finished the first half with 19 points. Wake Forest took a 29-22 lead into half as a result.
Boston College — and Fred Payne in particular — came out firing at the half. Over the first 4:30 of the second half, BC held Wake to a single free throw. Payne finally caught fire, drilling three threes in a row sandwiched around a fast-break dunk. A corner three from Kapke punctuated the run, and catapulted BC into a 36-30 lead at the first media timeout of the second half. The next five minutes saw that lead balloon to eleven points, as BC forced a series of stops and Aidan Shaw put down a nasty dunk before — against all odds — draining an absolute grenade of a 3.
The Eagles cooled off after that, however, allowing the Demon Deacons to chip away at the lead. Harris continued to cook — whether through jumpers or at the line — and a couple jumpers from his teammates got Wake within three as the clock ticked under five minutes. It was Boden Kapke who played the role of closer for BC — he hit an and-1 lay under the rack, and followed it with a free throw and then another layup working in isolation on the block. Wake kept it close — the refs became very whistle-happy down the stretch in the second half, giving out lots of opportunities at the line. BC appeared to have the game under wraps with 30 seconds left — up two with the ball — but Toews turned it over after a Wake trap in the corner, and Juke Harris drilled the three to give the Demon Deacons a 1-point lead. With 18 seconds left, Fred Payne missed a floater off the window, but Aidan Shaw provided the game-winning heroics with a putback to give BC their third ACC win of the season, 68-67.