Boston College Stuns No. 6 UVA

CHESTNUT HILL - Back on January 28 when BC played at Virginia, the Cavaliers out-rebounded the Eagles, forced 16 turnovers and forced BC to go 4-14 from beyond the arc.

On Wednesday night when the Eagles got another crack at the sixth-ranked Cavs at home, head coach Earl Grant was hoping BC was more mature and poised offensively and defensively against one of the top teams in the country.

He got that and then some.

BC stunned UVA with a somewhat dominant 63-48 victory. The Eagles held UVA to just 32% from the field. BC (14-15, 8-10) has now beaten three ranked opponents for the first time since 2009. Makai Ashton-Langford led the way with 16 points while Jaeden Zackery chipped in 12, as did DeMarr Langford Jr. in just his second game back from injury.

“I’m happy for the students, happy for BC nation, very proud,” said Grant who was soaking wet at his post game press conference following the locker room celebration. “We’ve been working hard and the fans have been showing up through the ups and downs. Our fans deserve it and our players deserve it with how hard they’ve been working, specifically the past month. We’ve been more whole with everybody healthy and practice has been more competitive. The fruit of their labor showed up today. I thought we had great preparation the last two days. I’m just thankful. Thank god the students kept showing up, the fans kept showing up and the players just keep working hard every day.”

The first 20 minutes couldn’t have been much better. Not only was Conte Forum banged out and rocking early on, but BC brought its defense to the table early, holding UVA to just 28% shooting in the first half while shooting 52% themselves.

After some back-and-forth early, a Prince Aligbe three made it 7-4 BC and a Post dunk after a stop made it 9-4. The teams ended up knotted at 13-13 before a jumper from TJ Bickerstaff with the shot clock winding down put the Eagles up by two. A Devin McGlockton layup, a layup from Ashton-Langford on a great pass from Quinten Post and another fast break layup from Ashton-Langford after a Post block quickly made it 21-15 with about six minutes left in the half.

The highlight of the half came with 3:10 to go as Ashton-Langford caught an inbounds pass with 1.4 on the shot clock and hit a fade away corner three to put BC up 24-17. A layup from his brother Langford Jr. off another fantastic look from Post pushed the lead to 26-17 and two late free throws from Ashton-Langford made it a 28-19 game before a late UVA bucket. BC had one final possession in the final seconds but couldn’t convert it to points, taking the seven-point lead into the locker room.

Ashton-Langford said defense set the tone, and Zachery agreed.

“That was the biggest thing coming into today,” added Zackery. “I give credit to Coach Grant, Coach (Molinari), everybody that helped us scout for this game. They had us in practice being vocal, moving, having poise and that was the main focus, poise. Especially since last game (Grant) came up to me and had a meeting with me and was just like ‘just be poised things are going to work out,’ and today it did.”

The second half opened up pretty much the same way the majority of the first half went. UVA remained cold, while buckets from Ashton-Langford and Post made it 34-25 BC four minutes in. After the first media timeout, Post gave BC its first double digit lead with a runner and then hit Zackery back door to push it to 38-25.Post sat down for a rest with 12:56 left and the Eagles up 40-31. A Zackery corner three with 10:39 left made it 44-33 and Post soon came back in. As the Virginia crowd began to make its voice heard, the Eagles’ fan base ramped up the energy. Zackery hit a layup in traffic with eight minutes to go to make it 46-37 and then he nearly blew the roof of of Conte with a three pointer, pushing it to 49-37 with 7:55 left.

“It’s a credit to Coach Grant and the players, I thought the students were alive,” said UVA head coach Tony Bennett on the incredible atmosphere. “I think they sensed…people get behind teams that really battle and I think they sensed ‘we’re going to get these guys’ as this game went on and they really got into it. Credit to them, they’re a team certainly on the rise. It’s probably the best atmosphere since we’ve come here.”

Aligbe kept the crowd rocking with a dunk moments later off a nice dish from Ashton-Langford after UVA grabbed a desperately needed bucket. The Cavs stayed within 10 with four minutes to go before McGlockton hit two free throws, making it 53-41. As the clock ticked under three minutes, McGlockton had a one-handed put back off a Zackery missed layup to give BC a 12-point lead again after a UVA make. Langford Jr. hit a layup after a BC steal to push it to 14 with 1:32 to go. From there, Ashton-Langford and his brother drained two more three pointers as Conte’s noise level became deafening. Students started making their way down the aisle ways directly behind the baskets and as the final horn sounded stormed the floor.

“Honestly, I thought it was a dream come true kind of,” Zackery said of the court storming. “When you’re a little kid, that’s what you always think about. Beating a ranked team, seeing everybody storm the court for you…it’s a special moment for us and this program.”

These are the types of nights BC fans have been dreaming of. Coach Grant and the team will be the first to tell you they’re still in the “building a foundation” stages, but Grant has seen this before and knows how significant it is not just for March, but for 2024 and beyond.

“You can never look back and say in year two you expect to have a big win like this, but all of the year two’s I’ve experienced, whether it be Wichita State, College of Charleston, Clemson or whatever, year two there was a breakthrough win,” he said with a smile. “Like, there’s going to be a court storming. I was like well, we’ve only got two games left now, so I wasn’t sure. All the year two’s I’ve had breakthrough wins where the students and the players and the diehard fans get a chance to come together and rub elbows in the middle of the floor. It’s always been year two. We were running out of opportunities, but I thought this was a big step for our program.”