Boston College Men's Basketball Falls to Central Connecticut State 60-59 as Shooting Woes Continue

The Eagles shot just 7/34 from three-point range against the Blue Devils.

Boston College men's basketball forward Jayden Hastings late in the game against Central Connecticut State on Nov. 11,2025. | John Sexton / Boston College Eagles On SI

Darin Smith Jr.’s contested layup with three seconds left gave Central Connecticut State the upset over BC on Tuesday night, 60-59.

The Eagles opened with an 8-0 run led by Jayden Hastings. He had three big slams in his first stint. Central Connecticut State opened with eight quick points, including two three-pointers, pulling BC’s lead back to 10-8 with 14:58 left.

CCSU threatened to knot the game at 12, but Boden Kapke made an impressive defensive play, sprinting to the rim and stuffing a Blue Devil player.

Luka Toews came off the bench for his first minutes of the season in the opening half, splashing a three-pointer to break a scoring drought of over three minutes for BC. 

Hastings briefly went down and play was stopped as the Eagles were ahead 22-17 with 4:25 left. He was looked at by a trainer after he appeared to catch an elbow to the chest/ribs area.

BC took a 30-26 advantage into the halftime break, led by Fred Payne and Jayden Hastings’ six points apiece. The Eagles shot just 4/18 from three-point range in the first half, after shooting 5/28 in Thursday’s home opener against The Citadel.

Payne opened the second half with five quick points as the Eagles held a 39-32 advantage at the under-16 media timeout.

BC head coach Earl Grant was forced to call a timeout with 10:10 left in the game after a corner three-pointer from CCSU.

Donald Hand Jr.’s shooting woes continued against CCSU, finally hitting his first three-pointer of the game on his eighth attempt with 9:13 left. The corner shot put BC up 52-46. Hand Jr. shot 0/7 on three-pointers against The Citadel.

CCSU took its first lead of the game with 6:45 remaining as the Eagles struggled to score. There was clear frustration on the BC sideline as BC trailed 55-54 at the penultimate media timeout.

The Eagles held a 56-55 advantage with 3:51 left. With just 2:02 to play and the Eagles down by two, Payne stepped up with a big and-one through traffic, which put them up 59-58. 

Hastings committed a moving screen as BC had the ball, looking to add some insurance to its one-point lead. On the ensuing possession, he came up clutch with a big block as the Eagles got a stop, which gave them the ball with 44.9 seconds left.

Donald Hand Jr. missed his 11th three-pointer of the night, and CCSU got the ball back with 13.4 seconds left down one point. The Eagles shot just 7/34 from deep on the night.

"We probably took four or five more than we needed to take," Grant said. "With the way our team have shown that they can shoot it, 34 isn't a bad number. If you make eight or nine out of 34, that's a good number."

Smith Jr.’s layup was good before Hand Jr. missed a contested shot at the buzzer as the Eagles fell to 1-2. Grant opted not to call a timeout and instead let the team play it out.

"It happened quick," Grant said. "Aidan grabbed the ball, threw it into DJ. Maybe we could've threw it to half, to have .5 seconds left, have a chance to get a shot, but it just happened quickly."