Turnovers Haunt Boston College Men's Basketball in 74-50 Loss to No. 22 Clemson
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The Boston College Eagles (7-10, 0-4 ACC) men’s basketball team dropped its fourth straight conference game on Tuesday night, falling to the Clemson Tigers (15-3, 5-0 ACC) by a score of 74-50.
Final. pic.twitter.com/lLbt0bR9ZV
— BC Men's Basketball (@BCMBB) January 14, 2026
The Eagles started the game with three pointers from Fred Payne and Luka Toews, trailing 8-6 at the first media timeout. BC struggled to keep ahold of the ball early on, surrendering three turnovers in the game’s opening four minutes.
Toews added another three-pointer coming out of the timeout. The Eagles kept it tight with the Tigers to open the first half, taking a 15-13 lead with 12:01 left.
Clemson got a big boost from forward Nick Davidson in the middle of the first half. After a three-pointer from Davidson with 8:23 left in the half, Clemson retook a 22-18 lead behind his 11 early points. The Tigers held a six-point lead at the under-eight media timeout after a powerful one-handed jam from Davidson.
Davidson’s takeover continued after the break, hitting another three-pointer. He set his season-high in points with 2:42 left in the first half, hitting his fourth three-pointer to give him 21 points.
"He hadn't played like that all year," BC head coach Earl Grant said. "21 points in the first half, he had an out-of-body experience."
BC, on the other hand, struggled to find easy looks. Donald Hand Jr. was scoreless in the first half. The Eagles shot well from the field in the first half, posting marks of 11/24 from the field and 4/8 from three-point range.
Turnovers killed BC in the first half, though, with 10 total giveaways. Boden Kapke recorded three first-half turnovers of his own as Clemson took a 37-27 advantage into the halftime break. The Tigers shot 6/12 from deep in the opening half.
"They were physical," Grant said. "We got to be better. We're better than that. We value the ball well. We've been one of the top teams in the country for ball care so that was very uncharacteristic for us."
Jayden Hastings scored BC’s first points of the second half with a dunk with 16:26 left in the matchup before picking up his fourth foul with 14:38 left as the Eagles trailed 44-29. He eventually fouled out with 3:45 left. The Tigers opened a 20-point lead with 13:29 remaining as BC was pushed out of striking distance.
Clemson led 66-41 with 7:57 left as the Eagles were scoreless for over two minutes of game time. Payne added some late buckets to improve his point tally to 20, but it was too little, too late for BC. The Eagles shot just 5/13 from the free-throw line in the defeat.
Hand Jr. was scoreless in the game.
The Eagles will return to Conte Forum on Saturday afternoon to take on Syracuse. Tipoff is set for 2 p.m. ET on ACC Network as BC searches for its first conference win.
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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.