ICYMI: Boston College Men's Hoops Improves to 3-1 Against Loyola MD
The Boston College Men's basketball team pulled down a staggering 49 rebounds to Loyola MD's 29 to take the win in another non-conference bout on Tuesday night.
Chad Venning led all scorers with 17 points on the night, but it was Donald Hand Jr.'s 15 second half points that spurred the Eagles to an emphatic 21-point victory over the Greyhounds. Hand Jr. put up 13 points in the first 12 minutes of the second period to grow the Eagles' lead out of the halftime break.
Five different players finished with double digit scoring numbers, and Hand Jr. added 14 rebounds to go with his scoring total. As a team, the Eagles drained 11-21 shots from deep.
Head coach Earl Grant spoke after the game on his team's win.
"I'm proud of the guys," Grant said. "[Boston College] is a weird team, because you always want to coach to win, but with so many new guys I've also got to coach to develop...You know we get the lead to 15 and then it's back to six. We get the lead to 12 and then it's back to six, so that's frustrating at times, but it kind of was a slow drip. I kept looking at the scoreboard and it was on a 60-point pace, so typically holding teams under 65, you're going to be successful."
Fred Payne served as one Eagle player to pour in 10 points of his own. Grant said that Payne was a player who he and the rest of the coaching staff saw chomping at the bit to earn valuable minutes in practices.
"[Payne's success] is called the fruits of your labor," Grant said to open his press conference. "You know, his attitude every day in practice, not playing much in games, and he played a little bit so far this year, but just a little bit. Always frustrated, always wanting to play. And I could tell he was chomping at the bit to get in the game by the way he practiced."
Now at 3-1, the new-look Eagles squad appears to be meshing early in the non-conference schedule. Chas Kelley III spoke about the team's all-round effort following the win.
"It comes from our practice," said Kelley III. "We go after eachother every day, and we have depth. And down the line as the seaosn goes down, that's the type of team you want to have. Guys have to be able to step up when guys go down, but it comes from our level of play in practice."
Boston College will resume play on Sunday as part of the Cayman Islands Classic against Old Dominion (2-3). That game tips off at 7:30 p.m. ET on FloSports.
