PROVIDENCE, R.I. – After two years of being the young and inexperienced team, the Boston College men’s basketball team was able to use their experience to get out of Providence with an 82-77 victory.
On Saturday,
BC, fresh off two losses to St. Joseph’s and Northern Iowa in the Paradise Jam tournament, led by as many as 18 against Providence but still found themselves needing a basket, down by two points with 45 seconds left.
“Once we were down, we had to fight back and stay together,” Corey Raji said following the game.
Coming out of the final media timeout with 1:58 remaining, sophomore Reggie Jackson was on the line with a chance to give the lead back to BC. He hit the first to tie the game 75-75 but missed the second. Bilal Dixon, one of the Friars freshman starters, hit a layup to take the lead, the last points Providence would have on the day.
Jackson ended up with the ball on the right wing and had an open look from three. Despite 8-for-14 shooting on the day, his shot for the lead didn’t even touch the rim, and it appeared as if BC would need one more stop and a last second shot for victory.
In the scramble for the rebound, the ball deflected out of bounds off a Friar player, and the Eagles were given a second life. Providence tried to call timeout, but the referees didn’t see the signal, and BC inbounded the ball. Junior point guard Biko Paris, with six points and seven assists already on the day, had the ball in his hands on the left wing.
“Biko just drove baseline. I was worried he was going to step out and turn it over, but I guess he saw something I didn’t,” Jackson said.
Paris saw a cutting Josh Southern and the 6-foot-10 junior bobbled the feed, allowing his man to get back on him before flipping up an awkward shot that rolled around the rim before falling through. The whistle blew, and Southern went to the line with a chance to take the lead for BC.
“Coach is always saying, ‘Roll to the basket’ when point guards are penetrating baseline,” Southern explained. “So I just rolled, he saw me, I kind of fumbled it a little bit, but I got it up to the rim and got fouled.”
After a Providence timeout, Southern stepped to the line for the go ahead free-throw. Southern, who iced last year’s victory over Providence with his free-throw shooting down the stretch, did something his teammates had struggled with all game: He made one from the line.
As a team the Eagles shot just 59 percent from the line, highlighted by an 0-for-4 from Raji. Despite the team struggles, Skinner had faith in his big man.
“Coach said, ‘I know your going to make this free throw, so hit it [and] then go play some defense,” Southern said.
The Saginaw, Mich. native combined with Paris again on the other end of the court, hedging out on a screen before Paris picked off the intended pick and roll. Paris hit the two free-throws after getting fouled to give BC an 80-77 lead.
Duke Mondy launched a three that fell harmlessly off the iron and into the arms of Joe Trapani, and the Eagles could escape with the victory.
The Eagles were forced to shut down the perimeter as the Friars came in shooting 28.8 threes per game. After hitting on four of their 11 attempts from deep in the first, Providence caught fire during their comeback in the middle of the second, hitting three 3-pointers in a row at one point before hitting another to take the lead with 4:11 remaining.
“That’s all we talked about basically since we got back,’’ Jackson said. “Since we left the Virgin Islands, everything’s been defense.’’
Despite all the talk of defense, the Eagles did OK for themselves on the offensive side. In addition to answering every punch the Friars threw down the stretch, BC shot 50.8 percent for the game even while failing to make a three-point field goal (0-for-10) for the first time since a 2005 victory over Shawnee State.
Jackson led the Eagles with 20 points, 12 rebounds, and seven assists. Raji added 16 points and 10 rebounds (12 and nine in the game’s first 12 minutes), and Trapani put in 19 points and eight rebounds of his own.
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