Boston College made 10 of its 20 3-point attempts and ended a two-game losing streak by beating Vanderbilt 80-62 on Wednesday in Nashville in the inaugural ACC/SEC Challenge.
The Eagles (5-2) received a game-high 24 points from Quinten Post and 22 points from Claudell Harris Jr. Harris made 9 of his 13 field goal attempts, and he and Post both shot 4 of 6 from 3-point range. It was the fourth straight game in which Post scored at least 20 points.
Post, who finished with seven rebounds, entered the week as the only player in the ACC ranked among the top five in scoring (second), rebounding (third) and blocked shots (fifth).
Senior point guard Ezra Manjon returned for Vanderbilt (3-4) after missing two games with an ankle injury and scored a team-high 16 points. Manjon began the night averaging a team-high 18.8 points per game. Jason Rivera-Torres tossed in 11 points, the only other Commodore who scored in double figures.
Vanderbilt, which has lost three in a row, didn’t have leading rebounder Colin Smith, who missed the game because he was in concussion protocol. Smith is averaging 8.4 points and 8.6 rebounds per contest.
Vanderbilt trailed by 24 early in the second half but was within 13 after a Carter Lang layup capped a 9-1 run and made it a 65-52 game. Harris responded with his fourth 3-pointer of the game to extend Boston College’s lead to 16 with 5:59 to play. Vanderbilt trimmed the deficit to 11 points with 2:53 remaining but failed to get any closer.
The Eagles led 15-5 in the early going and 21-7 with 11:01 remaining in the first half. After Vanderbilt pulled within 21-12, Boston College went on a 10-2 run and led 31-14 following a Harris jumper with 5:11 left in the half.
A putback by Elijah Strong with one second remaining gave Boston College a 44-23 halftime lead, its largest lead to that point. The Commodores were 1 of 10 from behind the 3-point arc in the half.
Vanderbilt shot 20 of 55 from the field (36.4 percent) for the game, while Boston College finished 29 of 56 (51.8 percent).
–Field Level Media
