BC Pops Wake's Brooklyn Bubble With Overtime Thriller

CHESTNUT HILL, Mass. -- The second day of the ACC Tournament feels like the postseason's grand opening. It introduces the heavy hitters - the teams that won more than they lost - and the teams with NCAA Tournament hopes and bids take the floor for the first time in the one-and-done format. They face teams who already played emotional, hard-fought games, and the idea is that better finishes rewards coaches and players with an extra day of rest.

That delayed start is an immeasurable advantage. Since expansion moved the ACC to 15 teams in 2014, few First Round teams advanced past the Second Round, and no team that played on the first day ever qualified for the semifinals by defeating a top-four team with a coveted "double bye." It simply didn't happen, not even in a league with growing parity, and since 2018, no team from that first day even so much as sniffed a shot at playing into the weekend.

Enter Boston College, a team with a chance to play its way into the semifinals after beating fifth-seeded Wake Forest on Wednesday in the Second Round with an 82-77 win in overtime.

"I'm really proud of our guys for showing great resilience," head coach Earl Grant said. "I thought this season really brought their endurance up with everything that we saw this year, whether it be wins or overtime losses. So I'm just really happy for the guys to be continue to climb up the hill and advance and get an opportunity to play on the third day of the tournament."

Playing in the first round is a bit of a dubious distinction because it's the sign of a less-than-accomplished regular season, but beating Pittsburgh on Tuesday affirmed the growth seen throughout the Eagles this season. They won in the ACC Tournament for the first time since the 2018 season, blowing out a team they split a regular season series with this year. The team's overall improvement, a common thread underpinning every win and loss, was on full display, and it somehow justified the Eagles' appearance even though a quick exit against the Panthers wouldn't have ever invalidated the larger body of work.

It fed a general sense of satisfaction before Wednesday's game rolled around. The Demon Deacons had fashioned themselves into an NCAA Tournament team, and the first meeting between Wake and BC ended in a disaster for the Eagles after a 30-point beatdown saw four Deac starters score in double figures. Alondes Williams, named ACC Player of the Year this week, scored 20 points with seven rebounds and seven assists, while Jake LaRavia, another All-ACC selection, posted a double-double with 11 points and 10 rebounds, nine of which were defensive. BC's shooting went stone cold in that game while Wake Forest never pulled off the gas pedal, a storyline that twisted and turned after sets of runs see-sawed the scoreboard.

The Eagles opened on Wednesday with a 10-2 run but soon trailed after a 9-0 Deacon run, but another run by BC flip-flopped the game into a nine-point lead. The flow ebbed relentlessly with subheadlines bubbling under its surface. Williams struggled to gain any traction against the BC defense and scored four points in the first half, while the 3-point shot, effective against the Eagles in the first meeting, found itself nonexistent in a half where Wake Forest shot 2-for-10 from outside.

"It was a good effort," Grant said. "We had a one-day prep, and we talked about what we needed to do. We needed to have a couple of really good shooters and some guys who could get into the paint. Our guys just did what we do. We worked on defending the three all year, and we were just happy to be in a game in the ACC Tournament where we had to be the best version of ourselves as it pertains to contesting threes and trying to get stops."

BC understood Wake Forest wouldn't stay quiet forever, and the Demon Deacons broke out in the second half to build a 10-point lead. But exacting that advantage took its toll on the No. 5 seed in the bracket and only emerged because BC's shooting temporarily turned icy. As the second half entered its final act, Wake Forest built a lead that extended when Grant drew a technical foul for a fiery exchange directed at an official, but free throws from DeMarr Langford, Brevin Galloway and T.J. Bickerstaff kept the Eagles afloat.

The Eagles broke their eight-minute streak without a field goal shortly thereafter, and after Williams temporarily exited the game with cramps, an uncontested 3-pointer from Makai Ashton-Langford supercharged the Brooklyn crowd and set a tone for a subsequent Galloway three. Williams eventually returned and gutted through the final minute to tie the game, but BC found itself with an opportunity at the rim as the final seconds ticked off the clock. A Galloway layup fell short as he drew contact, sending the game to the first extra session of the ACC Tournament.

"We were just trying to keep ourselves energized," Ashton-Langford said. "It's difficult to be a great team if you're not sticking together through those rough times. So we kind of rallied together and just stayed energized and confident no matter what happened on the court."

The obvious trust and conviction pushed BC over the Deacs, who had nothing left in the tank for those final five minutes. Williams continued to deal with cramps, and foul trouble crept into the lineup as BC brandished its strength in the final five minutes. For a second straight day, an opponent wilted during basketball's version of a playground street fight, and after building a seven-point lead, the Eagles exploded off the bench with the five-point victory.

"We've been in that position many times," DeMarr Langford Jr. said. "We'd get down and try to play catch-up. I think it shows the heart that we ain't got nothing else to lose. If we lose, we go home. If we win, we advance, and that's what Coach preached in the locker room before we went out and got it done."

There had existed this belief prior to the ACC Tournament that no team truly wanted to see BC in its side of the bracket despite the Eagles finishing with the No. 13 seed. They carried a reputation of toughness that didn't quite exist anywhere else, and no team, least of all one that needed to win its way into the NCAA Tournament, could have wanted to face a rugged program like the Eagles in its first game. Any slow start, jet lag, or anything else against a team with one game under its belt could offer them a sliver of momentum and wind up disastrous on the scoreboard.

Wake Forest learned that the hard way in the first few minutes when the hungry Eagles emerged from their locker room with a steamrolling bloodlust. They overwhelmed Wake Forest's star-studded lineup and frustrated ACC Coach of the Year Steve Forbes, and even when the awakening temporarily stopped BC, the game never felt out of reach because absorbing blows while counterpunching has been Grant's modus operandi since the start of the season.

"I thought for the majority of the game, their physicality bothered us. We didn't play through contact very well, and then when we go 13 for 24 from the free-throw line, it's just a bad recipe," Forbes said. "Credit to Boston College, and they have won two games, and Earl has done a really good job with this team.

The Langfords, meanwhile, led a charge by combining for 32 points, with Makai Ashton-Langford playing 44 minutes and shooting 5-for-7 during a game in which he had seven rebounds, five assists and two steals. His brother, DeMarr, scored a team-high 19 points and got to the line for 10 free throw attempts, hitting seven while grabbing an additional four rebounds and dishing three assists.

They buoyed the backcourt while Quinten Post and James Karnik opened opportunities in the interior. Post had four takeaways on defense and contributed 17 points, very quietly shooting 7-for-12 as BC's best offensive weapon. Karnik likewise added seven boards with eight points while offering different looks each time BC ran down the floor.

"In football, if you only can pass and can't run, that's a bad thing," Grant said. "In basketball, running the ball means getting into the paint, whether it be dribble penetration or with post feeds. We talk about that all the time. Our guys were driving the ball. They were delivering it into the post. Some of it was on-ball screen rolls. It wasn't always just a straight-up post stop. It was our guards making decisions in pick-and-roll and finding [Post and James Karnik] at the rim to where they just had to deliver."

What was once a far-fetched dream is now a reality for BC, and the Eagles find themselves in the Quarterfinals for the first time in four years. No team has ever gone five-in-five to win the league championship, but even taking that long road, a punishment for finishing in the bottom six seeds, doesn't quite feel outside the realm of possibilities as Miami looms large on the horizon.

"At this level, there are advantages and disadvantages," the younger Langford said. "We can't really look at that. We're trying to go out and win a championship [and] try to keep advancing. We can't look at advantages, disadvantages, nothing like that. We just got to go out there and play."

"We have to draw on the endurance that we've developed throughout the year," Grant added, "and trust each other, get some rest, game plan and be thankful that we get a chance to play."

BC and Miami will tip-off on Thursday at 2:30 p.m. with game coverage set for ESPN2. The winner of that game will advance to face the winner of the Duke-Syracuse game at noon in the Semifinals on Friday.

BC Pops Wake's Brooklyn Bubble With Overtime Thriller

Related News

Players Mentioned

Makai Ashton-Langford

T.J. Bickerstaff

Brevin Galloway

James Karnik

DeMarr Langford Jr.

Quinten Post

Related Videos