It was Claudell Harris Jr.'s world on Thursday night and we were all just living in it.

Harris Jr. reached 1,001 career points with a huge 29-point night - including seven made three pointers - as BC rolled over Lehigh 85-69 in the final non-conference game of the season.

Harris Jr. had 18 of his 29 in the first half as the Eagles (9-3) rolled to a big momentum-building finish to 2023. The 9-2 non-conference record for BC is the best for the program since 2006.

"I thought the early portion went good," head coach Earl Grant said of the first part of the season. "Non-conference we finished 9-2. Me, my staff and the players, we all feel like we should have been 10-1 in non-conference, but you can't get those games back. I think the losses we had actually helped us...everything helps you whether you win or fail, you can learn something from it. I think the non-conference was really good.

"I hadn't thought about it (the 2006 mark), maybe over Christmas break I'll think about it. We were just so focused on trying to prepare for this game. We knew this was an interesting game for us because of how they'd played other opponents...I hadn't thought about the non-conference in terms of that number, 2006."

The game was never in doubt, but it was a strange first half to say the least.

Harris opened the game with an NBA Jam on fire performance, knocking down four threes and scoring 14 of BC's first 15 points as the Eagles built a 15-2 lead with a 15-0 run. The lead eventually grew to 21-9, but Lehigh wouldn't go away early.

Soon, with 7:36 to go in the half the Mountain Hawks cut it to 24-18. Jaeden Zackery (13 points, 4 assists) pushed it back to 10 at 28-18, but another run had Lehigh within five at 28-23. A Quinten Post tip-in, Mason Madsen three and Post layup got it to 12 again (35-23) with three minutes to go.

Zackery poured a few in and finished the half with nine while Harris stayed hot, scoring 18 in the first 20 minutes and helping the Eagles build a 44-29 lead at the break. The Eagles shot 55% from the floor and 50% from three during the half in one of their better shooting performances early on this season.

Devin McGlockton immediately opened the second half with a three, but the Mountain Hawks quickly put together a 7-3 run. Moments later, a Post dunk, a stop and a three from Harris Jr. had BC back up 53-38.

Harris set a new season team and BC career high at the time with 12 minutes to go on a layup, getting to 23 and making it 57-44 Eagles. His career high is 34, which he had last season for Charleston Southern.

Things got sloppy as the pace slowed down quite a bit as BC maintained a 13-point lead with under nine minutes remaining (63-50).Harris watch continued with a three - his sixth of the game - that put BC up 68-52, getting him within two points of 1,000. A Zackery layup with 5:52 left put things away, making it 74-53 as the only drama left was to see whether or not Harris Jr. could get to the magical number.

The moment finally came with 4:54 left as he called for Post to set a screen up top, took a step around and drilled his seventh three of the game, giving him 29 points for the game, 1,001 for his career and BC a 77-54 advantage.

"I knew I was close to 1,000 but it wasn't on my mind," said Harris Jr. "Honestly, I was just talking about it...I lost track a long, long time ago. I knew I was somewhere in that range coming into the season, but it's never on my mind.

"It's an accolade. It's just a representation of the hard work I've put in through my college years and going forward. Hopefully I can keep adding on to that number and keep helping us stack up wins."

"I didn't know," Grant said when asked if he had any idea about the 1,000 points for Harris Jr. "My assistant said something to me right before that next basket. He said 'well if he scores one more basket he's going to have a thousand,' so he whispered that to me and then he made a three and he had 1,000. So, if he didn't tell me I would have never known."

Now, the Eagles set their sights on the 19 ACC games remaining, firmly in the discussion as a potential tournament team if they can take care of business and show that this strong start wasn't just a fluke.