While Boston College men’s basketball displayed its depth on Sunday night with 10 different players scoring—the first time that has happened this season—BC head coach Earl Grant was not surprised.
“We see it in practice,” Grant said. “The second group, a lot of times in practice, they challenge the first group, give them a good run for their money.”
The Eagles (4–1) need to utilize this depth in the coming days, according to Grant, as BC is playing three games in the Cayman Islands Classic over the course of three days. On Sunday night, BC handily defeated Old Dominion 82–52 (2–4) in its opening game of the tropical tournament.
The 30-point victory marked the second-largest win of the Grant era.
“Sometimes you’re not fortunate to get a big lead,” Grant said. “But tonight, we had an opportunity to play a lot of people.”
Donald Hand Jr. led BC in scoring with 12 points on 3-of-6 shooting, and he’s now averaging a team-high 16.6 points per game. But where the redshirt-sophomore guard has really dominated is on the boards, as Hand recorded a 10 rebounds on Sunday.
BC won the rebounding battle as a whole 46-to-34, with centers Chad Venning and Jayden Hastings combining for six boards. Transfer Rodger McFarlane, however, had a game-high 11 rebounds in the win.
“We’re pretty athletic, that’s number one,” Grant said regarding BC’s rebounding advantage. “We make an emphasis on that’s a part of what we’re trying to do.”
Hand agreed that rebounding is a huge part of what the program preaches. He now has three double-doubles this season.
“In practice, it’s crazy,” Hand said. “Everybody’s crashing the boards. We gotta box out, and if we don’t crash, we’re running. So when game time comes, we know teams don’t work on it like us.”
After leading 43–24 at halftime, the Monarchs managed to cut BC’s lead to 15 with 14:19 remaining in the game after two Robert Davis Jr. free throws. The sophomore guard, who had a game-high 19 points, was the only player the Eagles couldn’t contain.
But two Hand 3-pointers, and two dunks from Hastings gave the Eagles a 70–41 advantage with 9:46 remaining. Hastings played a career-high 20 minutes on Sunday, and also registered a career-high eight points.
The redshirt freshman, who did not play in a game last season, sees every game as another chase to improve. Hastings has seen success thus far backing up starting center Venning.
“It means a lot,” Hastings said. “Last year was long. It was hard because, me not playing and seeing everything from the bench. I just cherish each game and know that each opportunity is to get better through the good, through the bad.”
BC was initially down 9–7 four minutes into the game, but five-straight Fred Payne points, followed by a Joshua Beadle 3-pointer—his first of the season—gave BC an eight point advantage at the 12:08 mark. That lead was only extended from there.
Payne finished with a career-high 11 points as the Eagles’ second-highest scorer. The sophomore, who was coming off a former career-high of 10 points in BC’s win over Loyola Maryland on Tuesday, has played in more minutes in each of BC’s five games this season and has slowly started to lead BC’s second-unit.
“Coach always says we have 7-to-8 starters,” Hand said. “We’re very deep, very talented. Everybody puts the work in. So that’s what happens when the lights come on, people’s work shows.”
Despite the dominant win, Hand still sees room for improvement among this Eagles squad, especially with another game in less than 24 hours.
“We try to be better tomorrow than we were today,” Hand said. “Even though it was a good win, we need to improve on it, so we’ll get better from it as well.”
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