Pass out of bounds. Missed three. Blocked at the rim. Missed three. Intercepted pass. Swatted off the glass.
That was the story to start the second half for Georgia Tech men’s basketball as it ran directly into the brick wall that is the Boston College men’s basketball’s defense. It took 5:36 for the Yellow Jackets to find even one point amid defensive stop after defensive stop by the Eagles.
Meanwhile, on the other end of the court, Chad Venning went to work, scoring six straight points to start a 10–0 BC run and stretch the Eagles’ lead to 42–27.
“Chad Venning, in particular tonight, he was a junkyard dog,” BC head coach Earl Grant said. “He cleaned up a lot of mistakes from our guards when the ball was getting downhill, and he had some crucial blocks at the rim.”
Georgia Tech (13–14, 7–9 Atlantic Coast) never recovered as BC (12–15, 4–12) took care of business on home court, downing the Yellow Jackets 69–54 and getting revenge for its 21-point loss in Atlanta back in January.
“It feels good,” Venning said. “You know, really the adjustment is just defense. Like we just locked in and honed in on it.”
Despite the eventual 15-point win, the two teams played a tightly contested game in the first half.
The Eagles got things started with a layup from Donald Hand Jr. and a three from Roger McFarlane before Georgia Tech’s Lance Terry got a three of his own at the other end.
From then on, the two teams traded blows until about 10 minutes in, when the Eagles took the lead for good on a Joshua Beadle 3-pointer. But Georgia Tech still kept it close.
The largest lead the Eagles could muster was seven points after a pair of Elijah Strong 3-pointers, but Baye Ndongo’s 13 first-half points kept his team in it heading into the half down 32–27.
Ndongo finished the game with 17 points and 15 rebounds, while Strong finished with 9 points of his own.
“He had a great game tonight,” Grant said of Strong. “10 points in 14 minutes, but we’re going to need them down the stretch, so I think him and Roger McFarlane both will have a chance to share those minutes at the four position.”
BC came out of the half time team talk with a whole new level of intensity, though, forcing eight second-half turnovers and recording four blocks.
The Yellow Jackets tried to muster a comeback, cutting the deficit to six with 3:27 remaining, but Dion Brown hit a pullup jumper at the other end to bring the score to 60–52.
That’s all it took to spark one final BC run, as the Eagles outscored Georgia Tech 11–2 in the final 3:06 en route to a 69–54 win.
“From day one, you know, my message was we wanted to be gritty, not pretty,” Grant said. “I thought Boston College was—and I still believe it is—a hard worker’s place, it’s a fighter’s place, and it’s a blue collar mentality. People like to win. People like to be tough, so we’ve been pursuing that since day one.”
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