Junior center Nik Popovic kept the Eagles within striking distance just long enough for freshman sensation Wynston Tabbs to finally heat up at DePaul. After a slow shooting start, the reigning ACC Rookie of the Week sparked a 10-2 run to close the game, giving Boston College (9-2) its first lead with under a minute left in a 65-62 comeback win on the road against the Blue Demons (8-3).
Starting in place of Jordan Chatman, who's still recovering from a bad ankle sprain, Chris Herren Jr. drilled the first triple of the game for the Eagles. But then they went ice cold, missing their next 14 attempts from beyond the arc as DePaul built a lead that hovered near double digits for most of the first half.
Jared Hamilton, who became eligible after the last finals period of the semester, provided a defensive spark off the bench with a block and a steal. He also finished a fastbreak with a slam before half, capping an 8-0 run over the final 2:23 to trim BC's deficit to just four points heading into the locker room. Hamilton's parents had flown out from Charlotte, N.C. to watch Jared and Jarius play on the same team for the first time. It was a fitting setting: their father, Bill, actually walked on to DePaul's basketball team in college.
Tabbs started the second half with a steal and a layup, offering a preview of his late-game takeover soon to come. But for all the efforts by Popovic—19 points on 7-for-12 shooting—the Eagles couldn't chip away at their halftime hole. With seven minutes remaining, DePaul's star guard, Max Strus, got leveled by a Steffon Mitchell screen, hopped back up to his feet, and finished a fastbreak layup through contact on the other end. Despite shooting just 1-of-10 from downtown, Strus managed 15 points, nine rebounds, and four assists on the afternoon.
With about two minutes remaining, Tabbs caught fire. The highest scoring freshman since Craig Smith drilled a deep jumper and converted a layup to make it a one-possession game in crunch time. The Blue Demons crumbled in the face of BC's ball-hawking pressure, coughing up a pair of turnovers in the final minute that Tabbs turned into four points. His free throws with 35 seconds remaining gave the Eagles their first lead of the game, one that he would add to with a pair of free throws 26 seconds later. In total, Tabbs scored 10 of their final 12 points and came up with the game-changing steal that swung the outcome.
Up 63-60, head coach Jim Christian made a critical adjustment when he chose to foul with 5.8 seconds remaining, eliminating the chance of a game-tying trey. He didn't want a repeat of the A.J. Reeves nightmare against Providence, and the strategy paid off. Popovic, whose free-throw percentage has dropped from 71 to 58 percent this season, sunk two late free throws and DePaul's unsuccessful half-court heave sealed the come-from-behind victory.
The late-game heroics helped mask a poor shooting performance by Ky Bowman, who continued a cold streak that has seen his 3-point shooting clip dip to a career-low 31.7 percent. Luckily, BC received a solid boost from Herren Jr., who drained a late triple and finished with 10 points in 29 minutes. Mitchell also made his presence felt in his return from injury with nine rebounds in just 27 minutes.
With the debut of Jared Hamilton and the emergence of Herren Jr., this backcourt will have legitimate depth when Chatman finally gets healthy. They'll need all the help they can get if Bowman can't figure out his shot by the time ACC play begins two weeks from today.
