– by Adesina O. Koiki
A Lot of Sports Talk editor-in-chief
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BOSTON — On one hand, the Boston College Eagles men’s basketball team had to endure the bitter taste of a poor performance in their last game for an entire week, but sophomore forward Elijah Strong had a different perspective coming into tonight’s game, approaching the contest as a person who was thankful to play another game.
It just so happened that Strong ended up playing the game of his life on Friday night — and that was just in the first half alone — as the Eagles’ quest for immediate redemption was a success.
Strong scored a career-high 25 points while adding 13 rebounds to lead Boston College to a 72-69 victory over Temple inside Silvio O. Conte Forum in non-conference action on Friday. Donald Hand Jr. scored 17 points while Chad Venning added 10 as the Eagles defeated Temple for the first time in program history after five previous meetings went the way of the Owls.
The Eagles previously took the floor seven nights ago and were embarrassed by VCU 80-55 in the Veterans Classic in Annapolis, Maryland, a game that the Eagles never led while managing to score just 20 points at halftime. Boston College more than doubled that first-half point total from last week by the 5:41 mark of the opening stanza tonight, and by that time, Strong had already set a career high in points with 15.
The Eagles made 15 of their first 20 shots from the field, but needed their defense, as well as timely offensive rebounds, to close out the game as they hit a cold spell for the rest of the game after their hot start. With 23 seconds remaining and Boston College ahead 68-66, Strong tipped in a missed shot from Chas Kelley III to extend the lead to a two-score game. On the ensuing possession, Temple’s Jamal Mashburn Jr. banked in a three-pointer to cut the Owls’ deficit down to one.
Strong, after being fouled, was only able to split a pair of free throws to grow the lead to two. But he made up for the miss on the defensive end, taking a charge as the Owls’ Elijah Gray was posting up on the right block with eight seconds left.
Kelley III made a free throw, then followed up with air-tight defense on Mashburn on the final possession, forcing an airball from the latter on the game-tying three-point attempt at the buzzer.
*Editor’s note: Above the byline is the photo gallery from Friday evening’s game, with photos taken by ALOST staff photographer Erica Denhoff. After clicking on a photo to enlarge the picture, press the left and right arrow buttons on either side of the caption to scroll through the rest of the pictures that appear on the first page, Also, click on the numbers and/or arrow appearing immediately below the picture grid to load the next set of photos. There are 37 pictures in total.
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