Boston College and Earl Grant once again played a sloppy first half of basketball tonight. Cal opened up the game quickly and jumped out to a 18 – 6 lead in the first 10 minutes. Elijah Strong hit a nice fade away jump shot on the baseline to score the Eagles 7th and 8th points of the game, and turned around to the Cal bench to say some choice words. He was given a technical foul. This is the type of sloppiness you don’t see from the best teams in the country. Slowly, the Eagles woke up. The scoring on the offensive end was led by Luka Toews, who entered the break with 12 points, and played the best half of his college career to date. Toews had only scored 21 points on the entire season before tonight. The first half was full of runs. After being down 16 – 4, Boston College went on an 11 to 3 run and cut the lead to just 3. Then, Cal answered with a 13 to 4 run of their own, heading into intermission leading Boston College, 42 – 31.
I wish Earl Grant could get his guys to start the game like they start the second half. The game of runs continued as BC came out of the break on a 15 to 3 run to take the lead for the first time at 46 – 45. From then on, the Bears and the Eagles traded blows. Every time the Golden Bears tried to pull away, Hand and the Eagles had an answer. Hand was on the bench for a majority of the first half with 2 fouls, so he came out of the locker room aggressive. He scored 19 points on just 4 of 12 from the field with all of his points coming in the second half. With about 7 minutes left, the Golden Bears led the Eagles 61 – 60, then Cal went on a 12 to 0 run which pretty much sealed the deal.
Luka Toews played the best game of his career tonight, and I’m not sure why he didnt play more in the second half. He didn’t see the floor until there were 10 minutes left in the game and finished with 14 points. He did a tremendous job using the pick and roll with Hastings or Strong and finding a shot for himself, the screener, or someone else on the perimeter. Hand kept the Eagles in the game again with a really nice second half performance. For Cal, they had a very balanced scoring attack with 5 players in double figures. They weathered the storm of BC’s comeback, and their guards, Javon Blacksher, Jr. and Jeremiah Wilkerson, controlled the game. They shot 50% from the field and handled business to clinch a spot in the ACC tournament in their first season in the conference.
This has been a really disappointing season for the Eagles, and this loss should all but guarantee that Earl Grant is not manning the sidelines next year. We see the direction the program is headed, and unfortunately, that is not anywhere that leads to NCAA tournament bids. The Eagles still have two games left this season against Clemson and Pittsburgh, but they will need to win both games, and get some help, in order to continue their season past March 8th. Boston College will take on the Clemson Tigers at Conte Forum this Wednesday at 6 pm EST.