It took a Donald Hand Jr. three pointer with 16 seconds left in regulation and an Elijah Strong three pointer with four seconds left in overtime, but BC is moving on.
The Eagles will play for the Cayman Island Classic crown against Boise State on Tuesday night after taking down Southeast Missouri 76-74 in OT on Monday.
The Eagles (5-1) got 18 points and eight rebounds from Hand Jr. while Fred Payne had a career-high 18 points in 29 minutes. Strong finished with 13 points, four rebounds, two assists and two blocks.
As a team, BC shot 50% from the field and 55.6% (10-18) from three. The Eagles had a poor night at the line (10-18) after going 14-16 on Sunday. BC also lost the rebound battle (35-32) and committed 14 turnovers.
Still, this program that’s learning how to win on the fly found a way to steal a game.
“In the pervious timeout we had before (the shot), we was just telling everybody to stay composed and we were gonna figure it out,” Strong said. “It started off with a stop. We was able to get the ball down the court and I had just hit one to bring it – I think – within two…or three, to bring it to three at the same spot. So, I just felt super comfortable shooting that shot.
“That’s a shot I work on every day. Pick-and-pop from the top of the key…that’s a normal shot that I take and it just happened to fall for me.”
“I thought Elijah delivered huge for us, making some timely threes,” Earl Grant added postgame. “Just really proud of these guys.”
BC led 29-26 at halftime and the Eagles actually built an 11-point lead in the second half (48-37) before it evaporated.
“Two things went wrong,” said Grant. “One was, they made some big shots. Some talented, big shots. They’ve got guards that can really score the ball. I thought we weren’t as sharp as we need to be in our ball screen coverage. The ball was getting downhill…the ball was getting downhill underneath the free throw line, so that wasn’t great, but they made some big shots.”
With 5:43 left, a Payne layup gave BC another fairly comfortable 56-48 lead. But, the gap was quickly cut to one with 3:55 remaining. A Hastings dunk made it 58-55, but the Bears soon tied it at 58-58 and took a 60-58 lead with 1:39 left. Payne knocked down a three to put the Eagles back up, but Missouri State took a 64-61 lead with 29 seconds to go.
Hand buried the game-tying three pointer with 14 seconds remaining and a missed jumper by the Bears sent the game to OT.
“I’ve always been known as a killer. I just want to win all the time,” said Payne.
Missouri State jumped out to a six-point lead, but Strong eventually cut it to 72-71 with 1:44 left on a layup. Strong was a force in the extra period, scoring eight points.
A jumper with 14 seconds left put the Bears up 74-72 before Strong calmly buried the game-winner from up top with four seconds remaining.
“The biggest thing I can take from (this game) is we’ve got eight or nine guys that can play, that can play in tight moments,” Grant added. “I didn’t know what lineup I would have out there late. I never knew I’d have two or three freshman out there late.
“I think what you learn is, we grew tonight. We have different lineups we can put on the floor and we’ve got to keep trying to get better every day.”
