In October, Boston College football center Alec Lindstrom lined up on the 11-yard line. With just seconds left on the play clock, he set his feet and snapped the ball. It sailed past Dennis Grosel, landing loose on the grass and handing Clemson a last-second win and stripping BC of its chance for a comeback win.
On Saturday night, BC men’s basketball (7–8, 2–3 Atlantic Coast) made its own trip down to Clemson. The Eagles had gone 708 days without a road win, and the Tigers (10–7, 2–4) quickly took a 23-point lead to all but convince fans that the win drought would soon increase to 709. With 26 seconds left on the clock, however, Anderson, S.C. native Brevin Galloway set his feet and unloaded a deep 3-pointer.
It sailed through the air momentarily before erupting through the net, giving BC its first and final lead of the game. A handful of free throws later, the Eagles had broken their road curse with a 70–68 win and succeeded where they had failed in October—the final seconds.
“We were down big,” BC head coach Earl Grant said in his postgame press conference. “We didn’t execute our game plan in the first seven minutes, but we stayed poised. The crowd was really loud, … and [in] the first seven minutes it bothered us. Then we started chipping away.”
Fittingly, it was Galloway’s 3-pointer and Makai Ashton-Langford’s free throws that sealed the game for BC. Langford and Galloway led the Eagles in scoring on the night with 19 and 18 points respectively, and James Karnik added 17 points
Galloway shot 6-of-15 from the field Saturday night, with five of his makes from beyond the arc in a quasi-homecoming game. He grew up just 30 minutes outside of Clemson and attended the College of Charleston in his home state before transferring to BC this year. Galloway’s brother Braden plays tight end on Clemson’s football team, and Grant first met a 12-year-old Galloway at a Clemson basketball camp during his time with the program.
”I met [Galloway] at a camp when he was 12,” Grant said. “It was amazing to be able to hug him after the game.”
Galloway followed Grant to BC after his decision to leave College of Charleston, but his career with the Eagles got off to a bumpy start due to injuries. Despite missing significant time, however, Galloway sits fourth on the roster in points per game and leads the Eagles in 3-pointers with 21. Jaeden Zackery has connected from deep the second-most on the BC team and has played 500 minutes. Galloway, in comparison, has played just 171.
Though he is consistently connecting from deep, Galloway’s knee is still not fully healed. He was a game-time decision Saturday evening and mentioned his difficulty moving around after the game.
“I can’t really move as well as I want to,” Galloway said. “As soon as I get the ball, it’s going up. I feel like I don’t need a lot of space.”
When he got the ball at the end of Saturday’s game, Galloway did not bother to create a good look for himself. Instead, he let fire from deep due to either his trust in his range or his inability to move at all.
While it was Galloway that ultimately gave BC the lead, no single Eagle earns credit for rescuing the team from its early deficit. With 7:11 remaining in the first half, BC trailed 34–11 and showed no sign of flipping the momentum. It managed to cut Clemson’s lead to seven at halftime, but the second half is where BC took over.
Ashton-Langford scored 17 of his 19 total points in the second half, helping the Eagles outscore the Tigers 38–29. BC worked throughout the half to chip away at Clemson’s lead before tying the game riding a huge momentum surge. With the score even for the first time all night, however, David Collins stepped up and delivered a deep jump shot. The Tigers led by two once again, and BC had just 35 seconds to respond.
All it took, however, was nine seconds for Galloway to give BC a one-point lead, and suddenly Clemson controlled its own fate. A missed jumper and a foul on Ashton-Langford brought BC’s lead to two points, but the Tigers refused to give up.
Once again, Collins found himself in control. With two seconds on the clock trailing by two he stepped up to the line. Two made free throws would send the game to overtime, but all it took was one missed shot to send BC home with the win.
Featured Image by Nicole Vagra / Heights Editor
