Boston College returned home from a hard road swing in desperate need of a statement victory for the stretch run to the ACC tournament.

The Eagles performed with a heighten sense of urgency but eventually fell short 72-68 to the Virginia Cavaliers on Wednesday night at Conte Forum. BC dropped to 15-13 and 6-11 with three games to play in the regular season. The Eagles shot 41% from the floor, with a dismal 5-of-22 from behind the arc, and 30 rebounds. Center Quinten Post led BC with 24 points and 10 rebounds.

BC will play its final home game against Pittsburgh on Saturday night (6) and close out the campaign on the road at Miami and Louisville. The Eagles beat the Canes and the Cards at home this season.

“You want to win them all and you definitely want to win them at home,” said BC coach Earl Grant. “This will be our last home game and Quinten Post will never play here again and from an emotional standpoint, you really want to win that last (home) game.

“We have to come up with a plan and the players will be excited about it and I’ll be excited about it. Hopefully we swill have a packed gym with a lot of energy.”

The Eagles and the Cavs met for the 29th time and 26th since BC joined the ACC in the 2005-06 season. Virginia is 20-9 against BC overall but the teams split their home and home last season. BC’s 63-48 win over the No. 6 ranked Cavs on Feb. 23, 2023 snapped a five-game losing streak.

Both squads struggled offensively from the opening tap, hampered by poor shot selection, turnovers and limited second chance opportunities.

UVA opened the scoring on a pull up jumper in the lane by Isaac McKneely at 17:33 that spawned a 9-2 Cavs’ run to the first media timeout. Post scored the Eagles lone basket on jumper from the free throw line.

The Eagles tightened up on defense but, with the exception of the 3-ball by Mason Madsen, remained ineffective in its halfcourt offense and trailed 11-5 at the second media timeout. Guard Jaeden Zackery got BC rolling with a corner trey and a floater in traffic to cut the lead to 22-19 into the third media timeout.

BC cut the lead to 22-21 on a fallaway jumper by Madsen with 5:02 to play. Virgina countered with a baseline drive by Reece Beekman and a jumper by Ryan Dunn to go up 26-21 into the final timeout.

Harris suffered an undisclosed injury that resulted from a friendly fire collision with Madsen during the stretch and was escorted to the BC locker room. Harris’ exit exacerbated Grants’ depth issues in the backcourt with sophomore guard Chaz Kelley off the grid with appendicitis.

“I thought we did a lot of things right and played with good effort,” said Grant. “They made the plays they needed to make and they were tough to guard.”

Harris returned to the fray and opened the second half with a 3-point shot that cut UVA’s lead to 27-26. The Cav’s regrouped with a 9-4 run and led 36-30 into the first media timeout.

BC ripped off seven unanswered points on a Post trifecta and consecutive alley-oop dunks by Devin McGlockton to take its first lead, 40-39, with 12:51 to play. UVA regained the lead, 43-30, on two free throws by Beekman and a putback dunk by Blake Buchanan with 11:20 to play. BC responded with a 6-2 spurt to take a 51-48 lead into the third media timeout. McKneely countered with consecutive treys to go up 54-51 with 6:06 to play. UVA led 63-55 at the final media timeout.