Sports, Basketball, Men's Basketball

Kelley Hits Game-Winner, Eagles Storm Back to Beat FSU 77–76

Redemption stories and sports go hand in hand. They’re not a rare occurrence. What is rare, however, is a redemption arc that spans just two games. 

That’s exactly what happened to Chas Kelley III.

With 18 seconds left, Boston College men’s basketball held a two-point lead over North Carolina and had possession of the ball. Kelley checked into the game, caused a five-second violation, and threw an errant pass that went out of bounds on the next possession. BC went on to lose that game 102–96

But on Saturday, his role was reversed. 

In a situation nearly identical to BC’s from the week before, Florida State held a two-point lead with seven seconds left. All the Seminoles needed was to inbound the ball and make their free throws. Instead, Kelley stole the inbound pass, rose up, and nailed a deep three to put the Eagles up by one with four seconds left.

Kelley blocked an FSU (13–9, 4–7 Atlantic Coast) shot on the next possession, securing a 77–76 win for the Eagles (10–11, 2–8) and snapping their six-game losing streak.

“You know, we’ve been laboring for a lot of days and a lot of months,” BC head coach Earl Grant said. “So I believe the fruits of your labor is a real thing. When you stay resilient and you believe and you have great courage, good things happen. So that’s what I saw tonight.”

The game started as a back-and-forth affair, as the teams traded blows until about seven minutes in when the Seminoles went up 15–14 on an AJ Swinton 3-pointer that came in the middle of a 7–0 FSU run. 

Despite Donald Hand Jr. pouring in 14 first-half points on 4-of-9 shooting from deep, the Eagles still trailed by five at the break. 

During the second half, things started to look bleak for the Eagles. The Seminoles came out of the half on an 11–6 run to extend their lead to double digits thanks to Malique Ewin’s eight points in 5:41. A couple of minutes later, FSU’s lead grew to 15 points.

BC responded quickly, going on a 9–0 run to cut the deficit to 61–57 with 7:17 left to play.

Daquan Davis put the Seminoles back up eight with 2:29 remaining, and a couple strong defensive possessions kept them up eight as the game entered the final minute.

Hand broke the Eagles’ two-minute scoring drought with an and-1 jumper, cutting the deficit to five. The teams then traded free throws at opposite ends of the court, bringing the score to 72–67 in favor of the Seminoles. 

Fred Payne stole the ball on the subsequent inbound, though, leading to free throws for Hand, who hit both to set a career-high 31 points.

“He knows he can take them,” Grant said. “We encourage him to take them. And he’s in the gym every morning at 6:30 a.m., so you know, he deserved to take them when you do that every morning.” 

The Seminoles went to the line and hit their free throws, extending the lead back to five. Kelley then drove down the floor and took a pull-up three, but it hit the back of the rim. 

Swinton grabbed the rebound but couldn’t find a pass as he fell out of bounds, instead throwing the ball to Chad Venning, who caught it and found Payne for an and-1.

Again, FSU hit its free throws to put itself back up by two possessions, and Venning came to the rescue once more on the other end. This time, he grabbed the offensive board and put it back himself. Kelley then forced the inbound turnover and hit the game-winning three.

“Number one, don’t foul,” Grant recalled saying during the final timeout. “You’re only up one … but with 4.2 you only get three dribbles. And so we wanted to push him down and make him catch the ball close to 84 feet as we could because we know he only had three dribbles.”

FSU ran the inbound play to Davis, who managed to drive all the way to the BC hoop, but Kelley came up clutch again, knocking the ball out of bounds and securing the win.

“I think that everything is possible when you believe, you know?” Grant said. “We had plenty of opportunities to fold out in that game. This season has been difficult, this journey has been difficult, but it ain’t because of a lack of effort.”

February 2, 2025

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