CHESTNUT HILL – BC had a chance to start 2024 off with a bang on Tuesday night, but Wake Forest had other ideas.
After losing at home by 30 to the Demon Deacons a year ago, BC fought tooth and nail this time, but a frantic end to the game resulted in an 84-78 loss.
If the Eagles are going to make the tournament this year, these were the types of games they needed to win, especially at home. BC got 20 points from Quinten Post and 15 each from Claudell Harris and Devin McGlockton, but it wasn’t enough.
BC dropped to 9-4 overall and 0-2 in the ACC with three straight road games coming up against Georgia Tech, Syracuse and Clemson. Wake moved to 10-4 and 2-0 in the ACC.
“I think they’ve got a nice team,” said Wake Forest head coach Steve Forbes. “This is a hard place to come play and win and it won’t just be for us, it’ll be for a lot of people. They’ve got good players and they’re tough. They’re a reflection of Earl. He’s a gritty and tough guy. I like their team. They’re hard to play.”
Leading by four at the half, BC was out of sorts to start the second and quickly found itself trailing after an 8-3 run by Wake made it 44-43 Demon Deacons. A McGlockton put back soon put BC back up, but another three from Wake with 16:00 left in the game put the Eagles back in a 47-45 hole, forcing an early Grant timeout.
Donald Hand hit a three to halt a 13-2 run and cut it to 49-48 with under 15 to go. As both teams scratched and clawed each possession, a three from Post put BC back up by one (53-52) with 11:46 remaining,
The back-and-forth continued until Wake grabbed a 62-58 lead with 8:40 left as BC continued to have trouble defending the three and finishing on its own end. Immediately out of a time out, Mason Madsen buried a corner three to cut it to one. Wake Forest reached the bonus with 7:22 left and hit two free throws to push it back to 64-61.
After two Post free throws and a Wake dunk, McGlockton missed a free throw after being fouled and scoring, keeping BC down by one at 66-65, but the Deacs answered with a three-point-play of their own and another bucket soon made it a 71-65 deficit with five to go.
Two more Wake free throws made it 74-67 as BC’s nearly three-minute scoring drought continued. The Deacs pushed it to 10 with a transition layup following a missed Harris three. He did knock one down on the other end, but BC still trailed 77-70 with less than three minutes remaining.
In a wild turn of events, Harris made a jumper on the next possession and then following a stop, drilled a three as he was fouled. He missed the free throw, leaving it at 77-75 with 1:45 on the clock. Wake answered, but Post knocked down one of two free throws, making it 79-76 as we ticked down under a minute.
A Harris jumper after a stop cut it to one in the final 35 seconds. That’s when Andrew Carrr – who hadn’t hit a shot all night – buried a corner three with 11.5 seconds left to make it 82-78. A steal and layup for Carr on the ensuing inbound ended it officially.
“It’s the ACC. I’ve been in the ACC for a couple years here, did it four years ago at Clemson, this is the ACC, guys will make shots. You’ve got to take care of the ball and be sharp execution wise,” said Earl Grant. “I thought we played a good game, our details weren’t all the way quite where they needed to be.
“We were off for about 10 days and didn’t practice well. I thought we played hard and played a good game, we lost a two-possession game and we made a couple mistakes defensively that burned us and offensively we had three or four possessions where we needed to get a better shot.”
Despite having 12 days off from its last game, BC looked sharp in the first half and built a four-point lead at the break, although it felt like much more.
A Zackery three, jumpers from Harris and Aligbe and a deep two from Post on a nice feed from Harris made it 10-9 Wake early. The Eagles put the foot on the gas and eventually built leads of 14-12 on a Post three from up top, 18-12 on a put back by McGlockton and 22-15 after back-to-back buckets from Mason Madsen and Zackery,
On the other end, BC did an excellent job forcing turnovers (despite having six themselves in the first half, the Demon Deacons had seven) while also taking charges and rebounding on the defensive glass.
A massive block at the rim from Post soon led to a transition dunk for Aligbe to make it 26-20 with 8:21 to go in the half. Harris eventually made it 31-24 with a three and BC grabbed its first double digit lead at 34-24 on a Post free throw after a hook shot. Wake refused to go away though and two quick threes had the Deacs right back in it at 36-32 with 2:50 to play. At the 2:17 mark McGlockton had another put back to make it 38-32 and a free throw from Donald Hand moments later put the Eagles up 40-36, a lead they carried into the locker room.
This isn’t a total killer, but certainly makes it more of an uphill climb later in the season if BC is going to make the tournament.
For now, Grant just wants his team to get back into a rhythm after the layoff.
“We practiced hard, we probably practiced too much,” Grant added. “We didn’t have games, so we try to balance it. We tried to do some skill development, there was no class, but we did get better this week. That’s the part that’s kind of weird because we just lost a game…but, we got better this week.
“We’ve just got to find our rhythm. We’ve got to get back to playing games. I like playing a game, having a day off, two days of practice then play. I want that routine to keep going. So, i think being able to get into that routine will help us. I’m really excited about this team. We’re really giving great effort, we’ve got to help them get over the hump and find a way to win these close games.”
