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5 takeaways from BC basketball’s heartbreaking loss to Notre Dame

T.J. Gibbs's game-winning shot with 0.1 seconds left lifted the Fighting Irish to an improbable win.

Notre Dame guard T.J. Gibbs raises his fist after his game-winning basket at the buzzer as Boston College guard Jay Heath reacts. Charles Krupa/AP Photo

By Trevor Hass

6 minutes to read

COMMENTARY When Boston College and Notre Dame met earlier this season, the game came down to a last-second shot and ended up as a one-point win for the Eagles as they survived on the road.On Wednesday, in the rematch at Conte Forum, the Fighting Irish evened the season series in thrilling fashion, earning a 62-61 win on a clutch bucket from T.J. Jones with 0.1 seconds remaining. Jay Heath put the Eagles (13-16, 7-11 Atlantic Coast Conference) ahead by one on a contested floater with 8.4 seconds left. The Fighting Irish (18-10, 9-8 ACC) elected not to call timeout, and Prentiss Hubb raced downcourt, dribbled from left to right, drew two defenders, and found Gibbs just outside the paint. Gibbs, with a hand in his face, barely got the shot off and swished it. 

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The Eagles didn’t have enough time to generate a look, and the result was their third loss in a row after a largely encouraging 4-3 stretch prior. 

“I was proud of our effort,” Boston College head coach Jim Christian said. “I was proud of the way we bounced back after the way we played against Clemson. I thought we played with great heart. If you hold Notre Dame to 62 points, you’re playing good defense, but we didn’t finish it out.”

Here are five takeaways from a largely promising night for the Eagles that morphed into a disheartening loss.

The final 10 seconds featured two clutch buckets.

Notre Dame has a rule it follows. When the clock says four seconds or less, and the game is on the line, head coach Mike Brey calls timeout. When there are more than four seconds remaining, he allows his players to go.After Heath’s bucket, Brey let Hubb make a play, and he found Gibbs for one of Notre Dame’s biggest shots of the season. Gibbs said the Irish practice that scenario almost every day, but it doesn’t usually work quite that well.“We have some type of telepathy, because (Hubb) saw it immediately,” Gibbs said. “We made eye contact, and he threw it right away. That was all him. I was just in the right spot at the right time.”The dagger itself was crushing enough for the Eagles, but it was particularly tough to digest because of what came before it. Heath’s shot was a beautiful, high-arching rainbow in the lane, and it was almost enough, but Notre Dame simply had the ball last and made one more play.Christian said he would have used a timeout if he had one, but the Eagles were out. He said it was a broken play, and he credited Gibbs for making a great shot.“That wasn’t why we lost the game,” Christian said. “We missed a lot of opportunities.”

BC’s offense went cold after a strong start.

Outside of a few pivotal plays late in the game, it was a solid showing from BC. The Eagles led for over 33 minutes, got 21 points from their bench, and shot 53 percent in the first half to build a 41-34 halftime lead. Even when they didn’t score, they were doing just about everything right and playing with great poise and pace. On one play late in the first half, Luka Kraljevic outletted the ball to Derryck Thornton. Thornton zipped it to Jared Hamilton, who upfaked and found Heath in the corner. Heath missed the 3, but the formula was perfect. Thornton finished in traffic, Steffon Mitchell did a little bit of everything, and Julian Rishwain got hot from 3 early to put BC ahead, yet the second half wasn’t as kind to the Eagles. After pouring in 41 points in the first half, BC scored 20 in the second, including just six in the final 8:22. Christian wasn’t discouraged by the shot selection. If anything, he thought it was better than it was early. The Eagles simply weren’t able to capitalize.“In the second half, we got fantastic shots, where we wanted them,” Christian said. “We just didn’t make them.”Brey pointed out that the Eagles made the Irish exert so much energy on defense that Notre Dame grew tired on offense in the first half. In the second half, when the Irish relied exclusively on their zone, BC’s shots didn’t fall for whatever reason.

A half-court heave gave Notre Dame momentum to end the half.

Christian didn’t put much stock into the notion that Rex Pflueger’s half-court heave as time expired to end the half jumpstarted Notre Dame, but the Fighting Irish seemed to believe it gave them a lift.BC was on a 14-4 run to close the half, and had extended its lead to 10, when Pflueger intercepted a pass with 1.6 seconds left and launched a prayer that somehow found its way in off the glass. Instead of going in down 10 with no momentum, the Irish were giddy and invigorated.“That’s a new play we run right before the half, where we steal the ball and throw it in from half-court off the backboard. It worked,” Brey joked. “When you see something like that happen, you do think the basketball gods are with you a little bit. They were tonight.”Gibbs said the play “changed the game” for Notre Dame, but, as Christian said, there was much more later on that affected the outcome more. “It was a mistake,” Christian said. “ … That had nothing to do with the game. We had the lead the entire second half.”The Eagles led from the 10:41 mark in the first half until the 3:42 mark in the second. They simply couldn’t hold on this time like they did in the first meeting.

Steffon Mitchell nearly recorded a triple-double.

As is often the case, Mitchell influenced the game in a variety of ways. He shot the ball with confidence, particularly in the first half, drilling his first three 3-pointers and keeping the defense honest. The junior forward also thrived as a facilitator and a rebounder, finishing with 12 points, 11 rebounds, and nine assists, barely missing out on what would have been BC’s first triple-double since 2006.“We all know who he is,” Christian said. “Nobody’s surprised by anything he does.”Gibbs said the Irish knew Mitchell was capable of leaving his imprint, and he was impressed by Mitchell’s performance all night.“He’s a great player in the ACC,” Gibbs said. “We knew we had to watch him throughout the whole game. Coach said in the scout he’s able to affect the game without scoring. He did that today. Honestly, him by himself was able to keep us out of our rhythm.”

They know they have to regroup and focus on what’s next.

This one would have been a gem for the Eagles had they been able to seize it. They would have swept the season series with one of their main rivals, potentially helped their seeding for the ACC Tournament, and still had a chance to finish with a winning record.Instead, thanks to Gibbs’s heroics, they were stripped of a game they felt like they should have won. That’s the glory and the heartbreak of basketball all wrapped into one.“I give our kids a lot of credit,” Christian said. “I wish we would have finished it. We deserved to win the game today, in my opinion. They made the plays, and we didn’t.”All the Eagles can do now is move on and get ready for Syracuse on Tuesday and Florida State the following Saturday. As of Friday morning, BC is currently 10th in the ACC standings.The ACC tournament starts Tuesday, March 10, in Greensboro, North Carolina, and the Eagles know they’ll have to win the whole thing to make the NCAA Tournament. The hourglass hasn’t run out quite yet, but time is of the essence.

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