Boston College Men’s Basketball Prepares to Take on Ranked Foe: The Extra Point
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Boston College men’s basketball will return to Conte Forum on Saturday for its first contest in a week.
The Eagles will face off against No. 17 Virginia at 1:30 p.m. ET. The game will be shown on the CW.
The Cavaliers hold a 16-3 overall record and a 6-2 tally in conference play. They currently sit at third in the ACC, while the Eagles are 13th with a 9-11 overall record and a 2-5 conference record.
BC is coming off a 68-64 defeat on the road to Notre Dame. Point guard Luka Toews made a critical error in the game with just two seconds remaining, calling a timeout while the Eagles had none left to call.
After the game, head coach Earl Grant said, “We challenged a lot of things, and we called a couple timeouts. We just thought we had one timeout left… So we thought we had one timeout, and we called it.”
The mistake handed the Fighting Irish two free throws, which put the game out of reach for BC. The Eagles’ shooting woes continued in South Bend, shooting just 32.1 percent from the floor and 20 percent from three-point range. Fred Payne, who’s been on a tear in conference play, once again led BC in scoring with 18 points.
Virginia’s last game also came against Notre Dame, and the Cavaliers won in a 100-97 double overtime thriller. They matched their biggest comeback in school history, overcoming a 19-point first-half deficit to capture the victory.
Forward Thijs De Ridder leads the Cavaliers with an average of 17.1 points per game. He scored a career-high 32 points in the win over Notre Dame on Tuesday night. De Ridder gets his buckets efficiently, shooting 53.1 percent from the field on the year.
His playing career epitomizes the current state of college basketball to a tee. De Ridder is from Belgium and played three years of professional basketball for Bilbao Basket before joining the Cavaliers for the 2025-26 season, making him a 22-year-old freshman.
The Eagles will also have to look out for senior guard Malik Thomas, who comes second on the team with an average of 12.9 points per game.
On BC’s side, Payne will have to continue to lead the way, but he’ll need help. Donald Hand Jr., who scored 17 points against Notre Dame, seems like a prime candidate to step up for the Eagles, who could really use a big win at this point in the season.
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Brendan Mogan is studying communication and journalism at Boston College. He has worked as a staff writer for The Heights, the independent student newspaper, since spring 2023. There, he has covered women’s basketball, baseball, volleyball, and more. Brendan works as a writer in the USA Basketball Writing Program, covering its youth teams in tournaments such as the FIBA U19 Men’s World Cup. He joined Boston College Eagles On SI in 2025.