The story of Boston College men’s basketball’s Tuesday night loss to Virginia Tech was told about 22 feet and 1 inch from the basket—22 feet, 1 ¾ inches, to be exact.
The Eagles (10–20, 3–14 Atlantic Coast) made five of their 22 attempts (22.7 percent) from behind the arc, and no player other than Boden Kapke sank more than one.
The Hokies (19–11, 8–9), meanwhile, hit 11 of 24 (45.8 percent) on the way to a 72–63 win in Blacksburg in BC’s final road game of the season.
Kapke scored a career-high 25 points on 11-of-19 shooting in the loss, while Fred Payne picked up his first career double-double, putting up 16 points and 12 rebounds.
BC fell behind early and trailed 30–11 with 6:18 until the half. Neoklis Avdalas put up 14 first-half points, including four 3-pointers—also including multiple stepbacks off the dribble.
The Eagles mustered a resurgence before the break, however, going on an extended 13–5 run. Chase Forte drove inside for a layup with 28 seconds to go, and BC headed into the locker room down 35–24 at half.
Free throws proved to be BC’s Achilles heel once again, as the Eagles finished 4-of-10 from the line to the Hokies’ 15-of-18. Eleven of Virginia Tech’s free-throw makes came in the second half—BC committed 10 personal fouls in the period.
Tobi Lawal shot 8-of-9 from the free-throw line on his own, finishing the game with a team-high 20 points to go along with seven boards.
Kapke hit a three with 17:18 left on the clock, cutting Virginia Tech’s lead to seven at 36–29. But the Hokies scored the next seven points, and BC was unable to counter their momentum effectively for the remainder of the half.
Payne and Kapke were the only players in maroon that looked capable of breaking through the Hokies’ defense, accounting for 41 points while the other six Eagles that saw action combined for just over half that (22).
BC brought the game within six again with 10:23 to play, but never quite broke through as Virginia Tech’s lead hovered around 10 for the rest of the game as the Eagles picked up their 10th loss in 11 games and their chances at making an ACC Tournament appearance became far slimmer.