CHESTNUT HILL – Almost a year-to-the-day of the UVA upset in 2023, BC was looking for that same magic on Wednesday night.
UVA came in unranked, but still a 20-win team fighting for its tournament life. BC gave the Hoos a game, but in the end, came up short losing 72-68.
Quinten Post had a monster game (24 points, 10 rebounds) and Jaeden Zackery added 12, but as a team the Eagles only shot 40% and were an abysmal 5-22 from three point land. The Cavs also got 18 points and eight assists from Reece Beekman.
The Eagles fall to 15-13 overall and 6-11 in the ACC with three regular season games remaining before the ACC tournament.
“I thought we did a lot of things right,” said Earl Grant. “We let the shooters get loose late. We went up one, they made three three’s all back-to-back-to-back. That hurt us, but I thought we did a lot of things right and played with good effort.
“We played a good team. They made the plays they needed to make.They executed, they grinded, they were tough to guard. I thought our guys did a really good job for the most part, but between the threes late and then Beekman being that point guard that he was. He was hard to deal with…it was a challenge and we came up a little bit short.”
Six minutes in, BC was 1-11 (0-4 from three) and down 11-2 with two turnovers. Mason Madsen finally hit a three to cut it to 11-5 and make BC 1-6 from beyond the arc. UVA missed some shots and allowed BC to hang around and a Harris jumper at the 10-minute mark made it 13-9.
Down 15-10, a Zackery three brought BC within two. The teams went back-and-forth for a couple minutes with UVA holding a slim 22-19 lead heading into a timeout with 5:47 left in the half.
A Madsen fadeaway from about 12 feet cut it to one, but BC went cold on its next four possessions, allowing the Cavs to build a 26-21 lead back up with under three left. As the scoring drought continued and the Eagles had some more bad luck as Harris collided with Madsen underneath the basket and appeared to be woozy, although he did return.
Ultimately, the drought after the Madsen jumper reached four minutes before McGlockton scored with a 1:02 to go, making it 26-23. Following a UVA free throw, Zackery was stripped on BC’s final possession and UVA closed out the first 20 minutes with a miss at the rim, leaving BC down just four at the break.
The Eagles closed out the half shooting 34% (10-29) and 18% from three (2-11), but UVA wasn’t much better, shooting just 39% (11-28) and 22% from three (2-9). The Cavs did out-rebound BC 20-17 and each team had two turnovers.
“At this level, you have to really be sharp with your details,” Grant said. “In terms of the game plan, we thought in order to win the game one of the big keys was take their threes away and we did it for the most part, but that patch in the middle of the second half really hurt us.”
UVA opened things up a bit in the first five minutes of the second half, pushing it to 36-28 before a jumper for Zackery cut it to six. He was fouled on the play and he made the free throw.
A Post three and a sick pass from Zackery to McGlockton for a bucket cut it to 39-38. The Eagles took their first lead of the night at 12:51 when Post threw up an easy alley-oop to McGlockton, making it 40-39. Trailing 45-42, a three-point-play for McGlockton re-tied the game at 45 apiece heading into the final 10 minutes. An easy bucket for Post on a nice dish from Madsen gave BC a 47-45 lead. The Cavs went a bit cold and the Eagles soon pushed it to 51-48 on a steal and layup by Prince Aligbe.
Back-to-back three’s for UVA’s Isaac McKneely quickly put the Hoos back up 54-51 as the clock ticked towards six minutes. A couple BC misses, another three and a two free throws made it an 11-0 run and an eight-point UVA lead. To make things worse, McGlockton fouled out with 4:35 left.
Two Post free throws finally ended the run 20 seconds later. The Eagles got it to 60-55, but a Hoos’ three pointer put BC right back in an eight-point hole with 3:20 remaining. Post was fouled shooting a three and knocked down each free throw put of a timeout to make it 63-58.
Post got torched by Reece Beekman for an easy layup with two minutes left to push the Virginia lead to 66-60, but Donald Hand answered with a three. The Hoos made it 70-65, but a three-point-play from Madsen with 29.2 left cut the deficit to 70-68.
UVA hit two free throws and Madsen fumbled the ensuing possession. BC got it back, but Msdsen heaved up an air ball that went out of bounds and UVA dribbled out the win.
BC hosts Pitt in the final home game of the year on Saturday night (6 p.m.) before closing out the regular season with games at Miami and Louisville.
Grant hopes despite the team’s struggles a big crowd will show up for the final home game of the year.
“You want to win them all. You definitely want to win them at home. You definitely want to win it for your guys on that last…that’s the last home game,” added Grant. “Quinten Post will never play here again, so obviously from an emotional stand point you really want to win that game and play well and all that stuff. We’ve got to come up with a plan and we’ll be excited about it.
“I’m sure the players will be excited about it. I’ll be excited about it. Hopefully, we have a packed gym with a lot of energy, students and people from the community. That’ll be my biggest hope is that we have a great crowd to make sure we show the appreciation for guys like Quinten Post.”
