Boston College broke its season-long pattern of late collapses on Saturday afternoon in a packed Conte Forum, as Donald Hand Jr. hit a three to send the game to overtime and BC dominated the extra period on the way to a 81–73 upset win over Syracuse men’s basketball.
“We’ve been in a lot of games—there’s never been a lack of effort, there’s never been a lack of belief,” BC head coach Earl Grant said. “A lot of our games were like this. You get to four minutes, it’s a two-possession game, and you got to find a way to win, and whoever makes the most plays and less mistakes typically is going to win.”
In several of BC’s 10 losses, those last four minutes have been detrimental. This time, though, that was not the case.
BC trailed 62–57 with two minutes remaining, and Hand responded by sinking his first jumper of the game—a three. Grant and staff gave Hand the call on the Eagles’ last play of the game, too, and the ball fell cleanly through the net to tie the game 64–64.
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“DJ is DJ,” Grant said. “He averaged 15 points a game, he was ACC Most Improved Player. He hasn’t played as well as he wanted to, but he’s the same guy.”
BC (8–10, 1–4 Atlantic Coast) scored eight of the first 10 points in overtime and held on to beat Syracuse (12–6, 3–2), earning its first conference win of the season and breaking the Orange’s three-game win streak.
“It’s a blessing to see one of those fall, but I’m gonna shout out my teammates for trusting me to take that shot,” Hand said.
Fred Payne led BC in scoring with a career-high 26 points, shooting 4-of-7 from three and playing 43 minutes in the process.
BC’s struggles have often stemmed from the offense becoming stale, leading to opponents making runs and eventually pulling away. On Saturday afternoon, though, Payne didn’t let that happen. Every time Syracuse looked like it would take over, Payne made shots or fed his teammates.
Nate Kingz, who ended the game with a game-high 27 points, hit a three at the halfway mark of the second half. Payne responded by hitting a jumper on the other end. And when JJ Starling drove into the paint for a layup on the next play, Chase Forte sank another jumper to keep BC’s deficit at two.
Forte was effective on both ends of the floor, taking tough defensive assignments and dogging ballhandlers all the way up the floor during several key stretches. He ended the game with 13 points on 3-of-4 shooting.
“I thought [Forte] set the tone for us defensively,” Grant said. “He was picking the ball up, you know, 75 percent of the floor, and really harassing the ballhandler … that was one of his better games, I think, all year, and it came at the right time.”
Conte Forum was the fullest it’s been all season. While it seemed like at least half of the seats were filled with Syracuse fans, the energy was there nonetheless.
“We came out with great energy,” Grant said. “Certainly our crowd had a lot to do with that. I don’t know if they thought that was a whole Big East game, or what they thought, but that was the best atmosphere that we’ve had here in a while. I don’t think it’s no mistake with the energy that we had, that the fans had a lot to do with that.”
The Orange’s fans were especially engaged when Donnie Freeman looked to score. The star forward missed nine games due to injury, but had scored 22 or more in the three games prior to Syracuse’s matchup against BC.
Freeman ended Saturday’s game with 19 points. When it mattered most, though, he made a mistake that could have drastically changed how the game ended.
With 18 seconds to play, Caleb Steger fouled Freeman. BC was in the bonus, and Freeman stepped up to the line to shoot a free throw with his team up 64–61. He missed, though, and Hand hit the three on the other end to tie things up, ultimately leading to a win for the Eagles.
“It feels amazing, because we’ve worked so hard,” Payne said. “We’ve been losing in overtimes over and over and over, and finally got one.”