Boston College men’s basketball has picked up six conference wins this season. Only one of them has come against a team outside of the bottom five in ACC standings—the Eagles’ January win over Syracuse.
Saturday night’s game against Pittsburgh ended no differently for BC. In fact, compared to Wednesday’s close loss to Virginia, it ended much worse.
In Quinten Post’s last home game for BC (15–14, 6–12 Atlantic Coast), he picked up 30 points and 12 rebounds. But his performance was eclipsed by Pittsburgh’s 16 3-pointers, which helped the Panthers (19–10, 10–8) to a 90–65 blowout win in Conte Forum on BC’s Senior Night.
“There was a lot of moments where we played hard but when you give up 16 threes it just seems like nothing’s going your way,” BC head coach Earl Grant said.
The Eagles’ struggles started immediately. Just 12 seconds in, Blake Hinson splashed Pittsburgh’s first 3-pointer of the game. With 14:04 remaining in the half, Hinson nailed another—the Panthers’ fifth of the game—to give them a 21–9 lead.
BC, however, stormed back.
Jaeden Zackery hit a long-range shot to cut the lead to nine before a jumper from the Panthers gave them an 11-point lead. Then, Post almost single-handedly orchestrated a 9–0 run to bring the Eagles back into the game.
With 12:16 remaining in the half, Devin McGlockton tapped the ball to Post at the top of the arc, where the center picked up his seventh point of the game. A minute and a half later, Post connected on a hook shot. Then, the big man showed a glimpse of speed and drove past defenders, finishing a reverse layup at the rim to make it 23–19.
Claudell Harris Jr. capped off the Eagles’ run with a layup to make the score 23–21. Just like that, Pittsburgh was clinging to a fraction of its once 12-point advantage.
But just like they did all game, the Panthers responded with a 3-pointer.
This time, Guillermo Diaz Graham connected, increasing Pittsburgh’s lead to five—the smallest margin the Eagles would see for the remainder of the game.
“Sixteen for 30 threes is an exceptional shooting night,” Grant said. “And a good handful of them were contested and hard.”
After that point, the Eagles were unable to find rhythm on either side of the floor. Coming out of halftime down 47–32, the Eagles looked to Harris for a spark. Instead, he kicked off the second half with an airball. He finished the game with four points.
Despite his team’s ongoing struggles, Post’s offensive dominance carried on throughout the game. He hit a fall-away jumper in the paint to cut the lead to 13 with 19:06 remaining. Six minutes later, he danced through the lane with a tight spin move that stranded his defender and gave him an easy shot at the rim.
“Obviously, it’s a team sport,” Grant said of Post’s performance. “So it’s hard to do it all by yourself.”
With 16 seconds remaining, walk-on senior Abe Atiyeh hit a 3-pointer. And although the shot merely cut the Panthers’ lead to 25, Conte Forum exploded. After years of student-fans chanting in unison for “Abe” to enter the game, he was able to cap off his senior night with an emotional score from beyond the arc.
“Just really happy that he could experience a moment like that,” Grant said. “He’ll probably remember when he’s 50 years old.”
