Down one point with four seconds remaining in overtime, Elijah Strong had no doubt his 3-pointer was going to win the game for Boston College men’s basketball.
“It felt great coming off my hands,” Strong, who’s 3-pointer gave BC a 76–74 win, said. “That’s a shot that I work on every day. I have no choice but to believe it’s going because that’s what my team needs at that moment.”
Strong’s eight overtime points helped the Eagles (5–1) overcome an 11-point blown second-half lead, as well as a six-point overtime deficit, against Missouri State (4–2) in the Cayman Islands Classic semifinals game.
The win sent the Eagles to the championship matchup against Boise State on Tuesday night, marking the first time BC is playing for a championship under head coach Earl Grant.
“I told the players—remember why we came here,” Grant said. “It’s hard to win championships, but we just want to have an opportunity to do it, because you only get to do it in November and you only get to do it in March.”
After a terrible start to overtime that featured BC turning the ball over twice and the Bears scoring six straight points to take a 70–64 lead, the Eagles rattled off five straight points of their own, first a Jayden Hastings dunk followed by a 3-pointer from Strong.
Donald Hand Jr.’s two free throws gave BC a 73–72 lead with 29 seconds remaining, and Strong’s game-winning 3-pointer took care of the rest.
“That game shouldn’t have been that close,” Strong said. “But you know, it happened. So, by the grace of God, we got out of there.”
Before Strong’s heroics, Hand had to save the day himself in regulation, as BC’s leading scorer nailed a 3-pointer out of a timeout with 14 seconds remaining to force overtime with the game tied 64–64.
“I know he works on that shot every day,” Fred Payne, BC’s backup point guard who notched a career-high 18 points in the win, said. “Coach just drew up a great play, and we just executed.”
Hand also led BC with 18 points in the game.
Down 60–58 after a Dez White jumper, who finished with a game-hgh 25 points, Payne hit a corner 3-pointer to put BC up one after Missouri State collapsed on the Eagles in the paint.
BC took advantage of the Bears’ inadequate 3-point defense, nailing 10-of-18 3-pointers and shooting 100 percent from behind the arc in overtime.
The Eagles led 48–37 with 11:41 left in the second half, but a 7–0 Missouri State run quickly cut into the Eagles’ lead. Roger McFarlane converted on a pullup jumper to end the run, but the Bear wouldn’t go away, as they put together another 7–0 run minutes later to cut BC’s lead to 56–55 with 3:41 left in regulation.
But a Hastings dunk, combined with Payne and Hand’s huge shots, helped the Eagles force overtime.
“It took a lot out of us,” Strong said. “Coach, he just wrote down on the board, ‘gritty not pretty.’ The game was not pretty. It wasn’t. We had to fight for every second.”
BC had multiple chances to win the game in regulation. A Chad Venning fadeaway hook shot with 30 seconds left that hit nothing but air.
Venning, who finished with four points, fouled out less than a minute into overtime after being ineffective for most of the game. Strong slotted over to the center spot, and the sophomore finished with 13 points.
“He gives you a different element,” Grant said. “I think Elijah’s a matchup problem at the five. He really can play inside and out and pass and do a lot of different things.”
Grant once again utilized a big rotation, playing 10 different players, with eight different Eagles scoring.
“I think that the biggest thing that I can take from it is that we got eight or nine guys that can play in tight moments,” Grant said.
Despite the near-collapse, Strong remains confident in BC’s ability closing out games going forward.
“It was amazing how we just pulled through,” Strong said. “That’s just perseverance, that’s just a lot of work in the offseason, just staying true to our principles.”
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