CHESTNUT HILL, Mass. – There have been times this season where Boston College’s effort has been in question. Much like Saturday afternoon, when the Eagles beat North Carolina, Wednesday night wasn’t one of them, as the Eagles blew out Virginia Tech 80-60 largely from playing harder.
Boston College won all the effort plays. It came in the form of stopping chances Virginia Tech had close to the basket, getting all the loose balls and 50-50 balls. Almost anytime the ball was deflected or an Eagle lost the handle, it came right back to the home team. Even when it looked like the Hokies might get an easy basket off a broken play, an Eagle suddenly was right there to break it up. And it happened throughout the game.
“You’ve got to give them credit,” Virginia Tech head coach Seth Greenberg said. “They played at a high level tonight, and they’re capable of playing at a high level.”
Virginia Tech certainly didn’t play their best game on Wednesday, laying an egg at a bad time. No one could have seen it coming, as they played well in a losing effort at Duke on Sunday and had a couple of good practices leading up to Wednesday night. That contributed to the margin of victory, but there’s no question Boston College looks like a different team now.
The first difference is that the Eagles have now been using a press for several weeks, and it has made a difference in the results. Teams had been able to press the Eagles into submission, but now they’re turning the tables and better at breaking the press. While they haven’t won every game, they’ve been right there in all of them and they look more comfortable pressing teams. The last two times, they have played well in winning efforts.
Another key difference is the play of Reggie Jackson. The sophomore guard has been inserted into the starting lineup, and after struggling at times earlier in the season has been hot of late. Jackson started games earlier in the year due to injuries, but moved back to the bench once the Eagles were healthy. There isn’t an Eagle with his physical gifts, but he’s been a little on the feast-or-famine side thus far. Lately, it’s more feast.
Jackson has been excellent in the past two games as a starter. He scored 17 points and handed out seven assists in the win over North Carolina, with 14 of those points coming in the second half. Against Virginia Tech, he had just five points but eight rebounds to go with the 11 assists. He has the quickness for the position, but has generally played off the ball as he’s learned the game at this level. Now, it’s almost hard to believe there was a point where he was struggling earlier this year because he seemed to be consumed with playing the position.
In part because of Jackson, the Eagles were sharp early and ran out to a 15-2 lead. The scoring pace slowed considerably, but the Eagles got hot again and scored both in the paint and on the long ball as Jackson racked up eight of his career-high 11 assists in the first half.
“I think we were just executing well,” said junior forward Joe Trapani, who led the Eagles with 17 points, all in the first half. “We were very patient, setting screens, waiting for screens, and that’s kind of been our problem in the past.”
Virginia Tech looked like they might have a run in them to start the second half, but the Eagles quickly regained the momentum. Throughout the second half, they continued to have the edge on effort plays, out-rebounding the Hokies and getting every 50-50 ball, something not lost on the Hokies.
“I just felt like we started out slow, and we couldn’t get back in,” said junior guard Malcolm Delaney, who didn’t score his first points until more than 10 minutes were played. “We weren’t getting stops and we weren’t getting 50-50 balls.”
It wasn’t an accident that the Eagles kept it up in the second half. One thing Trapani was quick to point out was how the Eagles out-scored the Hokies by five in the second half instead of relaxing with the lead they had, something they have done a few times this season.
Boston College hasn’t had an effort issue of late, which had dogged the Eagles for much of the season up through January. The games they have lost haven’t been ones they should have won or where they got embarrassed. They aren’t going to suddenly make a run and reach the NCAA Tournament, but they look more and more like a tough out and like a team that could knock someone off in the ACC Tournament.
