About 83 percent of men’s basketball teams in the Atlantic Coast make the conference tournament at the end of the year. Statistically speaking, it’s harder to miss the tournament than it is to make it.
Coming off a loss against Stanford, Boston College men’s basketball needed a win at Cal to keep its ACC Tournament hopes alive. Those hopes were crushed on Sunday night.
Despite the Eagles’ (12–17, 4–14 Atlantic Coast) best comeback efforts, which led them to a second-half lead after going into halftime down 11, Cal (13–16, 6–12) beat BC 82–71 led by Mady Sissoko’s 21 points and 15 rebounds.
With the win, the Golden Bears clinched their own birth in the ACC Tournament.
BC did not break double-digits in scoring until there was 8:57 left in the first half. A Fred Payne free throw fell through the net to cut Cal’s lead to 11—something about that got the Eagles going.
Roger McFarlane hit a 3-pointer, then the unexpected happened. Luka Toews turned it on.
Toews, a freshman who hasn’t scored more than five points in a game all season, came to the rescue for BC while leading scorer Donald Hand Jr. remained silent, scoring no points through the first 20 minutes of play.
He sank a free throw, hit a jumper, then splashed a 3-pointer from the top of the key to cut Cal’s lead to five and force the Golden Bears to take a timeout.
A layup from Chad Venning cut the lead to 24–21 with 5:44 left in the first half. But in a fashion similar to how the game ended, the hole the Eagles had spent so much effort digging themselves out of swallowed them once again.
Toews hit two more jumpers 24 seconds apart, then Dion Brown scored a bucket to make it a 2-point game with 3:23 to go.
But whatever happened in that final 3:23 was bad—really bad—for BC. Cal ended the half on a 13–4 scoring run.
The second half started how the Eagles wished the first half would have gone: a Hand jumper. His quick five points brought the game within six. Brown and Hand combined for the first 11 of BC’s points in the second half, bringing the Eagles right back into the game.
Hand sent a long dime up the floor, catching Jayden Hastings on the fast break for a dunk that made it a one-point game with 15:35 left to play. Then, two free throws from Hand gave BC a 46–45 lead.
Finally, it seemed the Eagles had taken control.
The teams found themselves in a game of tug-of-war with the lead, though. Elijah Strong’s layup midway through the half stole it for the Eagles. But that was the last time BC would ever have control.
From Toews’ free throw at the 7:03 mark, to a free throw from Hand with 3:37 remaining, the Eagles did not score. Suddenly, a game that was always within one or two points had morphed back into what it had been at the end of the first half: out of reach.
A final push from the Eagles made it a 77–69 game thanks to a dunk from Hand with 1:34 to play.
But it was clear that BC had used up its gas, as two free throws from Sissoko essentially sealed the deal, sending the Eagles back to Boston without the hope of the ACC Tournament that they’d taken on their west coast trip with them.
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