Boston College Men's Basketball Opens Season With Road Loss to Florida Atlantic

The Eagles started their new season with a loss to the Owls on Monday night.

Boston College Men's Basketball (BCMBB) via X

The Boston College Eagles (0-1) men’s basketball team opened its 2025-26 campaign with a road loss to the Florida Atlantic Owls (1-0) 83-78 in overtime on Monday night. 

Boston College came out of the gate aggressive on offense, but could not get anything to drop. In the first four and a half minutes, the Eagles took nine shots and made just two of them, both jumpers by forward Jayden Hastings and guard Donald Hand Jr.

The Eagles missed their next four shot attempts, then made four of their next seven. Boston College’s streaky performance continued throughout the first 20 minutes of play. 

In the first half, the Eagles shot 11-of-30 (36.7%) from the floor, 4-of-14 (28.6%) from behind the arc, and 5-of-9 (55.6%) from free throws. 

The Eagles were down by as many as 10 points. Late in the half, they got within a point with a dunk from forward Jason Asemota, but Owls forward Kanaan Carlyle nailed a three-pointer in the final six seconds to give Florida Atlantic a 35-31 lead going into halftime. 

Coming out of the break, Boston College shot better and chipped into its deficit. 

In the first four minutes of the second half, the Eagles took just four shots compared to the Owls’ eight, but the streaky performance moved to the other side of the court. 

In the next eight minutes of game time, Boston College went on an 18-6 run to give itself a 55-49 lead with seven in a half minutes in regulation. During the time span, FAU made just four of its 12 shots. 

Boston College continued its hot performance and went up by as many as nine points 62-53, however back-to-back three pointers put Florida Atlantic right back in it 62-59 with four minutes to go in the second half. 

The late momentum by the Owls carried into the last seconds of regulation and FAU tied things up at 66 with 31 seconds to go with two free throws by Carlyle and a three-pointer by Yohann Sissoko which sent the game into overtime. 

In overtime, FAU outscored Boston College 17-12 and earned the overtime victory 83-78. The contest was tied at 71 with 3:28 to go in overtime and the Owls went on a 12-7 run to seal the win. 

Boston College had a chance to tie the game after a missed free throw by the Owls to keep the game going, but Hand Jr. missed the three-point attempt to tie it up with seven seconds left. 

Hand Jr. led Boston College with 20 points in the contest while Carlyle led Florida Atlantic with 19. 

Next up, Boston College will play its home opener at Conte Forum against The Citadel on Thursday night. Tipoff is set for 7 p.m. ET on ACCNX.