Boston College scores 62 in the second half to crush Holy Cross

Boston College continues to feast on regional mid-major programs on the home hardwood.

The Eagles outscored Holy Cross 62-33 in the second half and rolled to a 95-64 win before 4,866 fans on Friday night at Conte Forum. BC improved to 7-3 overall, 5-1 at home and cut the Crusaders’ lead in the series to 58-56 in the 114th meeting.

The Eagles recorded earlier home wins over Fairfield, Harvard and Central Connecticut and will revisit their Big East roots against St. John’s in the 2023 BABC Brooklyn Showcase on Sunday at the Barclays Center.

“This my third year here and every single year I’ve been here something bad has happened in the non-conference,” said junior guard Jaeden Zachery, who shot 8-of-12 from the floor and led BC with 18 points.

“We can’t take them lightly because for them this is their NBA championship type of games, coming to an ACC team’s house. We can’t treat them lightly and come out and play like we know how to play.”

BC shot 47.3% from the floor with 11 made threes, five by guard Mason Madsen, with 42 rebounds, 18 assists and 18 forced turnovers that were converted into 20 points. Center Quinten Post recorded his fourth double double of the season with 12 points, all in the second half, with 10 boards, seven assists and six steals.

“I think we are really good when we can knock and ball loose and we have athletes that are fast and we can convert pretty quickly,” said BC coach Earl Grant.

Grant’s strategy against the undersized Crusaders was apparent from the opening tipoff. The tallest guy in Holy Cross’ starting five was 6-foot-6 junior forward Caleb Kenney, who drew the job of guarding Post in the paint.

Post is on the watch lists for the Naismith, Wooden and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Awards and he was positioned to improve his national standing in several key statistical categories.

However, HC coach Dave Paulson countered with a collapsing double team from different directions every time Post got the ball and he exited the first half without a field goal. Post offset the double teams with kickouts and contributed four assists and three defensive rebounds to BC’s 12-9 lead into the second media timeout.

“Early on when we were in our man-to-man we tried doubling him and made him kick it out,” said Paulson. “But they punished us and they were prepared for it. We tried throw different looks at him and make other guys beat us.”

BC’s transition game kicked at the midway points in the half and went up 22-11 when Madsen buried his third straight trifecta with 9:09 to play.

Holy Cross enjoyed spurts of energy that prevented BC from going on sustained runs, but the Eagles led 28-17 into the fourth media timeout. Holy Cross dominated BC down the stretch and cut the lead to 33-31 at the break.

“I thought Holy Cross did a good job junking it up,” said Grant. “Some of it was us missing open shots, some at the rim and threes and we left about 18 points of the floor in the first half.

“In the second half we turned down good shots to work and get great shots and played more in the paint and made better decisions with the ball.”

Post scored his first field goal at 18:54 of the second half during a 13-5 that made it 46-36 into the first media timeout. Madsen netted his fourth trey from the corner to give BC a 51-36 lead with 15:42 to play. Zachery scored on consecutive drives to make it 59-41 with 12:52 to play and BC maintained its sizable lead to the finish.

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