Despite a blizzard forcing a one-day postponement of Boston College men’s basketball’s game against Pittsburgh, the Eagles started to heat up Saturday.
The Eagles (9–11, 4–6 Atlantic Coast) finally tipped off against Pitt (8–13, 3–7) one day and 26 minutes late, and BC cruised to a 69–56 victory. The Eagles entered with a vengeance after their last matchup against the Panthers on Jan. 8, in which BC fell short by two points on a missed bucket at the buzzer.
Sunday’s game told a much different story. The Eagles looked to stop Pitt’s John Hugley following his 32-point showing in the teams’ last meeting.
“He was the main problem last game,” sophomore guard DeMarr Langford Jr. said of Hugley. “He was the main guy we really had to shut down.”
BC’s defensive efforts held Hugley to nine points on Sunday.
The Eagles’ defense also worked Pitt into multiple dry stretches by forcing the Panthers to take difficult shots and preventing offensive rebounds.
“Rebounding is a big part of how they score—that and shooting free throws,” head coach Earl Grant said in his postgame press conference. “We knew we needed to take away second-chance points, and we knew we needed to keep them off the free throw line, so I thought we did a good job of both.”
Pitt did not complete a field goal for the last 10 minutes of the first half, and the Eagles headed to the locker room on a 7–0 run and with a nine-point lead.
After regrouping at the half, Pitt came back to the court energized, opening up the half with back-to-back buckets. But BC quickly reclaimed its dominance and took off with a 13-point run.
The Eagles held their lead for the remainder of the second half, even stretching it up to 22 points midway through the half, before ultimately walking away with a 13-point victory.
Langford Jr., Makai Ashton-Langford, and Quinten Post led the scoring for the Eagles, with 17, 21, and 11 points, respectively for a combined 49 points.
“I was happy with the guys’ efforts,” Grant said. “We’ve just got to keep building and working towards trying to play for 40 minutes.”
Featured Image by Nicole Wei / Heights Staff
