Boston College men’s basketball brought in eight new faces over the offseason. On Monday night, head coach Earl Grant finally got to see them in action as they took on one of college basketball’s winningest teams.
Grant led his team up to Mohegan Sun Arena to take on Dan Hurley and the Huskies in an exhibition game put on by the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame, where the Eagles ultimately lost 71–52 in front of a large crowd of primarily UConn faithful.
But for Grant, the night was exactly what it needed to be: tough.
“I want our guys to be tough, and so in order to be tough, you gotta do tough things,” Grant said. “Tonight was a tough thing. It was really hard out there, in terms of the physicality of the game, ball pressure, to try to execute in that environment with the crowd.”
Although BC ultimately lost by 19, the majority of the game was much closer than the final score suggests, thanks to the Eagles’ second-half effort. BC even led at one point, taking a 39–37 lead after starting the second half on an 11–2 scoring run.
“It was the spirit of the group—we never really got phased,” Grant said. “We were down, we cut back into the lead, took the lead, so we never really got phased. I just thought right there in the middle of the second half, we had a patch where the game got away from us.”
The ACC’s 2024–25 Most Improved Player Donald Hand Jr. picked up right where he left off at the conclusion of last season, leading the Eagles with 23 points and seven rebounds. He started the second half by drawing a shooting foul while putting up a three, then made all three shots at the line.
Hand’s shooting night was overall lackluster, as he made it to the line 18 times but made just 12. The performance was uncharted territory for him, as he missed just 10 free throws all of last season.
Hand’s off-night from the line didn’t stand out as much as his confidence did, though. He fired up shots and got downhill throughout the night, consistently drawing the defense into the paint then going up through contact.
With 7:28 to play in the second half and his team trailing by 11, Hand drove down the sideline, withstood pressure from Jaylin Stewart, and scored an and-1 bucket to cut the Eagles’ deficit to single digits.
Returning guard Fred Payne also poured in 12 points for the Eagles, shooting 2-4 from three and a perfect 4-4 from the free throw line. Aside from Payne and Hand’s familiar play, however, transfers Boden Kapke and Aidan Shaw set out to make the most of their first BC minutes.
Kapke, who played his last two seasons at Butler, scored six points for the Eagles and went 3-5 from the field.
Five minutes into the second half, Kapke defended UConn star Alex Karaban in the paint, causing him to miss. Then, on the other side of the floor, Kapke made a second-chance shot in traffic, fighting off two slapping defenders to secure BC’s 38–37 lead.
Shaw was scoreless on the night, but secured eight rebounds for the Eagles.
Jayden Hastings, a redshirt sophomore returner projected to be a key piece in BC’s frontcourt rotation, was 1-1 from the field, 0-2 from the line, and grabbed four rebounds.
“I thought they played hard,” Grant said when asked about his frontcourt. “It was physical. They rebounded, they battled. Now we just got to do a better job of feeding them the ball and getting them the ball in a position where they can be successful.”
Despite a concerted effort to start off the second half, UConn eventually pulled ahead, repeating the tactics that helped it pull ahead in the first place. Karaban scored 17 points and Solo Ball poured in 12 of his own. The duo was a combined 4-18 from three, but found ways to score around BC’s perimeter defense.
“I’m glad we had the exhibition, because we need to play that game this time of year,” Grant said. “We knew it was gonna be a battle, and I think it helped us be better.”