Boston College Men’s Basketball Clicks on Offense and Earns an Impressive 82-76 Victory Over Virginia Tech

On Wednesday night, Boston College men’s basketball traveled down to Blacksburg to take on the Virginia Tech Hokies in a midweek ACC battle between two teams fighting for positioning in the ACC tournament. The story of this game was the Boston College offense. Quinten Post got a double-double with 24 points and 10 rebounds, Chas Kelley scored a career-high 18 points, and the Eagles rained down 12 three-pointers in a 82-76 win.

The game started out very hot on offense for both teams. Thanks to a couple three-pointers from Quinten Post and Devin McGlockton, alongside some other impressive shots from a host of VT players, both squads were shooting well over 50% for the first several minutes of the contest. Post especially looked impressive moving the ball on offense, getting open looks and passing to teammates. He didn’t look very impressive from the charity stripe, though, missing his first 3 free throws.

Boston College’s Jaeden Zackery wound up benched early with a leg injury, but the offense continued to roll for BC in the first half anyway. Chas Kelley hit a three-pointer to give BC their first lead of the night about 12 minutes in, and Quinten Post racked up 16 first half points by facilitating offense all over the court. The defense also found their footing after several minutes and held the Hokies to just 27 first half points on 10/26 shooting. It was one of the best halves for BC all season.

Boston College continued to roll into the second half, quickly extending their lead to 15 as Devin McGlockton and Chas Kelley also entered double digit points with a bunch of nice looks. Chas Kelley was red hot from beyond the arc, making 4 of his 6 three-pointers and demoralizing the Hokies any time they attempted a run to come back. Virginia Tech started to figure some things out on offense and dropped the Eagles’ lead into single digits a few times, but BC’s offense continued to find ways to score and keep their cushion.

The clock continued to wind and BC still found itself with a double-digit lead with under 5 minutes to play. After taking a bit of a scoring break in the early second half, Quinten Post settled right back in from there and started dominating the paint. Whether it be an alley-oop or offensive rebounds and putbacks, Post makes it look easy as he rises above defenders under the basket. That effort helped Boston College maintain their lead into the final minute.

Things got a bit tricky at the end with a couple of quick Virginia Tech scores, missed BC free throws, and multiple out-of-bounds reviews. Quinten Post fouled out of the game late and the Hokies hit both free throws to cut BC’s lead to 4 points, but Virginia Tech’s multiple missed three-pointers in the last 30 seconds came back to haunt them. Chas Kelley hit two of his own free throws, VT couldn’t score, and Boston College held on for the 82-76 win.

Obviously the story of the night was Quinten Post and the BC offense. They were moving the ball and controlling the tempo all night long, something they have struggled to do consistently against strong competition. This Virginia Tech defense is one of the ACC’s better units and the Eagles basically had their way with them even without Jaeden Zackery or DeMarr Langford Jr. Not only were BC’s players hitting shots, but Post and Makai Ashton-Langford looked really good as facilitators and gave their teammates a lot of open looks. This BC team is on the upswing headed into the end of the season if they can keep playing like this.

Additionally, something that shouldn’t be lost is Makai Ashton-Langford’s tough defense. He held VT guard Sean Pedulla scoreless until deep into the second half. An impressive defensive performance against a player that averages 16 points per game and no doubt was key in the big win for Boston College.

#22 NC State is up next for Boston College, back home at Conte Forum on Saturday February 11th at noon.