In dramatic fashion, the Boston College Eagles slipped past the Virginia Tech Hokies 67-66 thanks to a last second tip-in by Rakim Sanders for their 4th consecutive win. This win was surely one of the most exciting games Conte Forum has seen over the past few seasons, and as Coach Skinner put it, a “great team win.”
The first half was a defensive struggle. Points were at a premium in the opening half and the two teams combined to shoot just 29% from the field. Boston College’s Joe Trapani and Josh Southern each picked up two early fouls, and were limited to just 13 minutes combined playing time in the first half. BC maintained an early lead and established their intensity on the defensive end. They fought hard for loose balls and crashed the boards, which would wind up being very key for the Eagles in this game. Courtney Dunn and Tyler Roche filled in admirably for Trapani and Southern, hauling in a combined 8 first half rebounds. However, they struggled to contain Virginia Tech’s Jeff Allen, who scored 14 points in the first half. Allen single-handedly kept the Hokies in the game early and BC had no answer defensively to slow him down. Virginia Tech’s other top scorers, AD Vassallo was held scoreless in the first half while Malcom Delaney managed only 4 points. Boston College led 23-21 at the break.
Both teams “loosened up more” in the second half according to Joe Trapani. Each team came out firing , Tyrese Rice nailed a three-pointer on the opening possession of the second half and Tech’s Delaney answered with a three of his own. A few minutes later Rakim Sanders deflected a Virginia Tech pass and Josh Southern eventually picked up the loose ball pushing it ahead to Rice who unselfishly dished it off to Trapani for the slam. The fast break dunk put BC up 33-30 at the 17-minute mark. A.D. Vassallo countered with a three-pointer, his first basket of the game to even up the score. A Tyler Roche three pulled BC ahead 40-35 with 13 minutes to play. Roche would play a huge role in this win. He scored the next 4 points for BC and finished with 10 for the game. Back-to-back layups by Delaney cut BC’s lead to 44-43, but the Sanders hit a jump hook and Jackson grabbed an offensive board on the following possession and hit a reverse lay-in to drive up the lead to 5 at 48-43.
It wouldn’t take long for the Hokies to battle back as Delaney drained a three, cutting BC’s lead to 55-53. After a pair of free throws by VT, the game was tied up at 55. Trapani scored two consecutive baskets for BC, the first a three pointer and the second a dunk after a nice feed from Jackson., running the score to 60-56. Jeff Allen, who was quiet for much of the second half, hit a tough shot in traffic to make it a one-possession game, but Trapani sunk two free throws to push the lead back to 62-58. Then with two minutes remaining a controversial offensive foul was called on Joe Trapani after he brought down a key defensive rebound. The foul would be Trapani’s 5th, and brought overwhelmingly loud boo’s from the packed Conte crowd.
Virginia Tech quickly took advantage of the call and scored on consecutive possessions to knot up the game at 62. A pair of Vassallo free throws gave Virginia Tech its first lead of the game since the 18-minute mark in the first half. Boston College’s Tyrese Rice countered when was fouled while hitting a tough hanging jumper in the lane. His free throw put BC back ahead 65-64 with 38 seconds to play. Boston College needed a stop on the next possession to seal the victory. Tough defense by the Eagled forced Virginia Tech to burn a timeout with 18 seconds to play in the game. Vassallo was then fouled while driving to the hoop and hit both free throws, putting Tech back ahead 66-65. Boston College got the ball back with 14.5 seconds to play. Coach Skinner drew up an isolation play for Rice, who got his shot off with about 2 seconds to play. The shot bounced off the back rim and Rakim Sanders found an open lane to crash the boards and get the tip-in with .4 seconds to play.
Coach Skinner went with a quicker lineup on that final possession because he noted that most games are won “with second shots.” It was just “a great hustle play”, added Skinner. Skinner described this game as “one of our better wins of the year” and noted the great overall team effort his players gave. The players “felt we were gonna win… they were not distracted by calls or non calls”, Said coach Skinner. Skinner jokingly noted his displeasure with the officiating in this game, which was very poor throughout.
Controlling the glass was huge for BC in this game. The “rebounding edge was the difference”, said Joe Trapani. The Eagles held a 34-30 rebounding edge in the game (BC was outrebounded 32-26 in the previous loss to VT). After the loss, “Coach emphasized rebounding” said Trapani. “If you look at our losses we’ve been outrebounded,” Rice said, but tonight the team was able to “get back to being physical.”
Tyrese Rice paced BC with 16 points and 5 assists, but did not have a great shooting night (6-18 shooting). Trapani scored 13 in just 18 minutes played. Joe was plagued with foul trouble, but he shined when on the court. Sanders scored 12 points, including the game winner. Corey Raji scored only 7, but he snagged 9 rebounds, including 4 offensive boards. Raji was a menace on the glass and at times Raji would come down with rebounds amidst two or three Virginia Tech players. The biggest surprise of the game was Tyler Roche’s contributions. Roche scored 10 points, his career high in league play. Roche hit some tough shots and even flashed the ability to penetrate off the dribble and drive to the hoop. Much of his offense came with Rice on the bench, making his scoring even more vital to the team.
Amazingly, Virginia Tech’s big three scored 62 of the team’s 66 total points. Allen had 23, Delaney scored 18, and Vassallo added 21.
Former BC great Craig Smith was in attendance and was received a warm ovation from the crowd.
BC improves to 17-6 on the year and 5-3 in conference play. Next up for BC is Virginia on February 4th at 7pm.
