Gritty, not pretty.
That’s been one of Earl Grant’s go-to sayings all year now when it comes to his young team. It was also the exact way to describe BC’s first round 80-62 win in the ACC tournament on Tuesday afternoon against Louisville.
Without Quinten Post and trailing by three at halftime, the Eagles dominated in bench points (16-7), second chance points (17-5), points in the paint (40-26) and rebounds (40-29) en route to the victory.
Jaeden Zackery was fantastic as a scorer and a facilitator throughout the game and finished with 15 points, eight assists and four rebounds. Prince Aligbe (14 points, 3 rebounds), Makai Ashton-Langford (16 points, 5 rebounds) and Devin McGlockton (11 points, 4 rebounds, 4 assists) all came up big as well in Post’s absence
.It’s unclear whether Post will be ready to go on Wednesday night against No. 7 North Carolina, but right now all that matters is that BC has at least one more game left in its season.
“This has been a beautiful struggle, as it pertains to the season,” Grant said postgame. “We had a lot of set backs, up-and-downs, disappointments, guys out of the roster. So, if there was ever a team that had some sort of opportunity to be prepared to miss an important player, we would have to be one of those teams just because of what we experienced throughout the year…our guys found a way. They were really connected. We had 17 assists and four turnovers, that’s the only stat I need to see. Guys really working together, being unselfish and they found a way to get the win.”
It took nearly three minutes after starting 0-5, but a TJ Bickerstaff bucket got the Eagles on the board following a 4-0 start for Louisville. BC’s first three of the game went down for McGlockton to quickly make it a 6-5 game. Coming out of the first timeout of the day, Ashton-Langford drilled a three to give BC its first lead at 8-6. Some good defense, another three by Ashton-Langford and another bucket by McGlockton soon had BC up 13-10 heading to the game’s second media timeout with just under 12 minutes left in the half.
After multiple missed layups on both ends – something that seems to plague the Eagles quite often – Mason Madsen pushed the lead to five with a short jumper. Moments later up 17-14 with under nine to go, Ashton-Langford picked up his third foul and had to sit. An Aligbe jumper kept BC in front by four and DeMarr Langford Jr. backed down his defender in front of the Louisville bench and drained a step-back with the shot clock winding down, making it 21-15. A layup by Aligbe and two free throws from Jaeden Zackery gave the Eagles a double-digit lead with just under six minutes left, but it wouldn’t last long.
Louisville finally stopped the 8-0 run after a careless Langford Jr. turnover and then cut it to five with a three. BC committed a foul on the shot and turned it into a five-point play while cutting the lead to just 25-22. Things continued to snowball for the Eagles with poor shot selection and mounting fouls, putting the Cardinals in the bonus. Louisville tied it at 25-25 while on its 10-0 run before Langford Jr. hit a little hook in the lane.
Zackery traded buckets with Louisville’s El Ellis over the final two minutes and the Cards jumped in front by one. BC put up quick, poor looks its final
possessions while Louisville got a late layup and took a 34-31 lead into halftime. The Cards ended up closing on a 19-6 run with Ashton-Langford out.
McGlockton and two Bickerstaff free throws quickly put BC back up by one less than two minutes into the second half. Both teams continued to trade baskets and hit the 16:00 timeout with Louisville up 43-41. Bickerstaff quickly knotted things back up with twofer throws after the TO. With the Eagles leading 46-45, Zackery was hacked going to the basket and hit both free throws, but more importantly, it was Louisville’s seventh foul of the half with 14:10 still left on the clock.
Zackery continued to be a playmaker both scoring and dishing out the rock and BC pushed its lead to 53-48 on two Ashton-Langford free throws. The veteran point guard of the club soon followed that with a ridiculous up-and-under to make it a seven-point game as the clock ticked under 10 minutes.
Arguably the biggest play of the game came from Madsen when he came up with a huge third-chance offensive rebound and then drilled a corner three in front of the BC bench to make it 61-51 with 6:40 remaining. BC grabbed its largest lead of the night on its ensuing possession when Madsen drove in and hit an easy layup. The lead quickly ballooned to 13 with four minutes left.
“We just simplified a bit,” Grant said. “I thought they were going from man to zone, so I just wanted to put the game in the players’ hands and say ‘hey, stop thinking,’ so we went motion. We just tried to keep it simple and move the ball.”
Louisville got within nine down the stretch, but it’s as close as the Eagles allowed them to get. To put a special cap on the day, Jonathan Noel hit a late three for his first bucket of the season, sending the bench into a frenzy.
The Eagles will need to maintain those good vibes heading into the matchup with UNC tomorrow night if they want any hope of extending this run, especially if Post isn’t available.But, hey, who knows? One down. Four to go.
“We’ve always been preaching how many practices we have left, how many games we have left together, especially for our seniors,” said Aligbe, who played in his first career postseason game. “However the regular season went, that’s in the past already….I also see it from the standpoint of everyone taking a step up with QP being out, us just trying to play for him and everyone else.”
“Believe in each other. Believe in what we do,” added Grant. “We are what we repeatedly do. We can’t change. It’s March. We’ve practiced all year. This is a tournament where the winner gets a big trophy. So, we just want to stay together and play to our standards the best we can. Trust each other and find some joy…I mean, we’re in the ACC tournament. Find some joy in what we’re doing and really try to support each other.”
