CHESTNUT HILL - BC showed some fight for a half and about five or 10 minutes into the second on Wednesday night, but a lack of talent quickly caught up with them.

Louisville beat BC 84-58 by simply flipping a defensive switch for a few minutes in the second half at Conte Forum, turning a fairly close game into a blowout in the blink of an eye.

Now, with the bottom three teams in the ACC not making the conference tournament in a few weeks, BC (10-12, 2-9 ACC) is in real danger of not even qualifying for that with nine games left on the schedule.

Donald Hand Jr. was the lone bright spot for BC on Wednesday, finishing with 19 points with three three pointers and five rebounds. Elijah Strong came off the bench after missing four games with mono and had six points. Chad Venning did not play. Jayden Hastings started in his place and had eight points with nine rebounds.

Louisville got 22 from Javonne Hadley, who had his way with the BC defense. The Cardinals improved to 17-6 overall and 10-2 in the conference, good enough for second with Clemson behind Duke.

Louisville was hot all night, shooting 50% from the field (34-68) and 39% from three (9-23). BC shot 38% (23-60) and 30% from three (6-20). The Cardinals dominated the glass (44-32) and had seven steals. Bc had 14 turnovers to Louisville's 11. Both teams shot 11 free throws. BC made six, the Cards made seven.

Here's what Earl Grant had to say postgame:

On Chad Venning'a foot injury (seen in a boot pregame)

"Game time decision. Found out (Tuesday) there was a chance he could maybe play or maybe not play. So, game time decision. He didn't play. Obviously, we found that out a little bit before the game. I don't think it's any major issue, but there's something going on there. Then, Elijah Strong hadn't played in four weeks. Tough deal. Tough deal, hadn't played in four weeks. Came back, practiced a couple days ago and gave us what he could give us. He was gassed. Hadn't been in a game, so appreciate his efforts. He's gotta find his rhythm."

On being somewhat evenly matched stats wise at half but still trailing by 10 (41-31)

"I just thought early in the game we were executing well, but we had some turnovers that were unforced. We stepped out of bounds a couple times. You know, just some uncharacteristic turnovers that hurt you. Any time you turn it over you don't get a shot at the basket. Other than that, we were even aside from those two or three turnovers. They made some threes. We needed to take away the three, they made five in the first half. Actually, they made seven threes in the fist half. Again, 10-point game at half. We didn't play well enough to win the game. Simple."

On open shots not falling

"I thought the game was even. Then, we had a two minute patch in the middle of the second half. We cut it to five, maybe 14 minutes left in the game. Then, we had a two minute spell where, again, whether it was fatigue or lack of maturity, whatever you want to call it, we took two or three shots and we allowed their athletes to get out and run. So, they got a few layups in transition and it went right back to 12. That's the story of the game. I thought we allowed them to make one big run that took it from maybe a three possession game to 18 points and it was hard to overcome that."

On what Louisville did after Hepburn (12 points) left the game for the Cardinals

"They had Terrance Edwards (19 points, 8 rebounds, 6 assists). Fifth-year senior, been playing point guard for four years at James Madison. Saw the kid in high school. Big time player and that's what they went to. Hepburn went out, they went to a fifth-year senior. Guy was talented, so that's the depth of their team. I think they wore us down. We were overwhelmed in the second half. We had a great game plan, we were playing good basketball, we were executing, things were going well and they threw a punch that we couldn't recover from."

On how Louisville's vast amount of experience on the roster helps them

"Again, maturity. Maturity. You don't want to make any excuses, but like, a fifth-year guy going against a freshman, it's going to be a difference, right? Jayden Hastings did all he could. I'm proud of him. He played hard, gave great effort. But, it's a freshman against a fifth-year guy, so that's where they are. They're very deep. They're playing good basketball. (Pat) Kelsey does a great job. We've got a long relationship. He's a good coach and they've got really good players. Our guys fought hard, played great basketball, showed good character. But, again, it got to a point in the game where we ran out of gas and they kind of pulled away from us."

On his relationship with Kelsey

"Yeah, I've known him for 20 years. We kind of came in the business together. Doin a great job, so good to see him. He's got a good team, doing a great job. Happy for him."

(Here's the full video of the press conference)