Before Joshua Beadle’s shot, Boston College men’s basketball had hit one 3-pointer all night.
Elijah Strong had sunk the Eagles’ only make from behind the arc 1:11 into the second half of the Cayman Islands Classic championship game between BC and Boise State.
But down 61–60, with five seconds on the clock and the game on the line, BC chose its last shot of the game to be a 3-pointer.
Beadle took one dribble off an inbound pass and launched a step back into the left corner, causing his defender to trip over himself. That gave Beadle the space he needed to rise up and shoot the game-winning three. It fell perfectly through the basket, barely rustling the net.
“We knew we had maybe three dribbles,” BC head coach Earl Grant said. “Two or three dribbles to get a shot off. And he just made a big-time shot.”
That’s the kind of shot that’s become typical for the Eagles in the last two games. In the semifinal game on Monday night, Donald Hand Jr. and Elijah Strong both hit game-saving 3-pointers—one to force overtime and another to win the game. Hand Jr. was named MVP of the tournament.
“We reminded each other every day after round one,” Grant said. “I said, ‘Hey, remember why we’re here? We’re here because we have an opportunity to compete for a championship.’”
Beadle’s shot gave BC (6–1) a 63–61 win over Boise State (5–2) on Tuesday night, sending the Eagles home as champions of the tournament even though Boise State went into the game as double-digit favorites.
“I told the guys before the game,” Roger McFarlane said. “This is a tournament game, because this is a tournament team.”
BC trailed by as many as nine points in the second half after a neck-in-neck first half that ended in a 26–26 tie.
With about 13 minutes left in the game, a disastrous sequence began for the Eagles.
First, Chad Venning committed his third foul of the game, which forced Grant to sit him. With no 3-point production, BC had heavily relied on Venning’s presence in the paint. He ended with a team-high 16 points.
The second damper was a five-second violation on BC on an inbounds under its own basket.
Then, Javan Buchanan made an and-1 bucket with Beadle picking up the foul. He sank the free throw to put the Broncos up 46–40.
Chas Kelley III had a wide-open three from the top of the key. He missed, the Broncos grabbed the rebound, sent it to Buchanan, and he scored again in the paint to extend the lead to eight.
BC wouldn’t go away, though.
Slowly, the Eagles crawled their way back.
It started with an Elijah Strong three-point play off a bucket and a foul. Then, Jayden Hastings was fouled at the rim and dropped in two shots from the stripe.
All the while, Buchanan continued scoring at will in the paint. He scored a game-high 24 points, but he alone couldn’t keep the Broncos ahead for long.
McFarlane scored on an and-1 with 8:14 remaining in the game, then hit two free throws thirty seconds later to cut the lead to 54–50. Boise State, meanwhile, went almost four minutes without a bucket.
“We started to change defenses, from man-to-man to zone, back-and-forth,” Grant said. “Kind of knocked them off rhythm, got us out in transition. Before you know it, you look back up at the scoreboard and it was a one-possession game.”
With 6:54 remaining, Beadle dribbled the ball around at the perimeter waiting for the play to develop. Venning came to screen, but Beadle refused it and kept the ball. He drove into the paint and scored a floater that made it a two-point game.
“We found a roster that is in rhythm,” Grant said. “Last night, Fred [Payne] had 18 points. Tonight, Josh Beadle hits the game-winner. Chad Venning has 17, Jayden Hastings has been really good down there, Elijah Strong was great last night,” Grant said.
McFarlane’s layup a minute later tied the game 54–54. Venning hit two free throws to give BC the lead, then a layup that put the Eagles up three. A jumper, also from Venning, extended the lead to five.
Venning’s six straight points put BC in control temporarily, but Boise State managed to piece together a 6–0 run entirely out of free throws, and ended up taking a 61–60 lead with 12 seconds to go.
Thanks to Beadle’s heroics, though, the Eagles came out on top.
“Look, we’re going to the Cayman Islands,” Grant said. “The only reason we’re going is because we got a chance to compete for a championship. You only can do that in November and March.”
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