CHESTNUT HILL — Coming into the season, Boston College men’s basketball coach Earl Grant saw his offense being a score-by-committee. Rather than relying on one or two players to carry the load on offense, the team would need three to four double-figure scorers to win.
It’s safe to say that he can reliably pencil in Fred Payne to be one of those scorers.
On Wednesday, Payne scored in double-figures for the sixth straight game, tying a season-high with 17 points. The Eagles had their best shooting night of the season against Harvard, beating the Crimson, 73-60, at Conte Forum.
The win snapped a two-game losing streak for Boston College, as the Eagles had dropped both games at the Shriner Children’s Charleston Classic. Playing their fourth game in eight days, BC made a final push before the Thanksgiving break.
“We had a one-day prep for this game. I was happy to see some resiliency, specifically after having a hard practice yesterday. They played a good basketball game,” Grant said.
The Eagles had their most efficient shooting night of the season, setting season-highs in field goal percentage (44.1%) and three-point percentage (40%). Grant saw his team work for the open shots and share the ball.
At the center of that scoring was Payne, who shot 7-for-12 from the field and 3-for-6 from 3-point range.
Coming off a 15-point game against Tulane, Payne got to work early, scoring eight points in the first five minutes of the game, helping the Eagles to a 18-9 lead. While he was the top scoring option against Harvard, the redshirt sophomore echoed his coach on sharing the ball.
“I guess I just accepted the role (today). Sometimes there’s not really a number one option,” Payne said. “I tell the guys, you can’t focus on the points. There’s going to be days I have six points. We just share the scoring.”
The Eagles led 38-30, but Thomas Batties kept the game within reach for Harvard, scoring 10 of his 13 points in the first half. Batties and Robert Hinton led the team with nine rebounds each.
In the second half, Payne moved from the scoring role to glue guy. While he scored just four points in the second half, he grabbed three rebounds to go with a pair of assists.
“Fred is a humble guy. He’ll get off the ball and get some assists. I have to give him props for being efficient and also being unselfish,” BC’s Aiden Shaw said.
Harvard made a run to open the second half, cutting the lead to 46-44.
BC responded by using its size advantage. Nobody over 6-foot-7 played major minutes for Harvard, and the Eagles began finding their big men in the paint to ignite a 9-0 run.
Thanks to Boden Kapok and Jayden Hastings, the Eagles satisfied their requirement of three players scoring in double-figures, as each guy dropped 10 points and they combined to shoot 8-for-8 from the free throw line.
“We wanted to get inside with the ball. We thought about playing them both together, but we never got to it. We wanted to attack the paint. Both were efficient and we want to try to build off of that,” Grant said.
While Shaw didn’t have the same scoring output, the senior made sure his presence was felt inside. On defense, he led the team with three blocks. Though he scored just seven points, his final bucket came on a dunk to make the score 53-44 at the 13:25 mark in the second half as part of the 9-0 run.
“He’s a stuff-the-stat-sheet kind of guy. He rebounds at 12 feet. He’s starting to find his rhythm offensively,” Grant said of Shaw. “As he continues to grow into this new role, I think he is going to be a major factor for us to have success.”
The senior transfer from Missouri leads the team in rebounds per game.
Up 55-46 with 10 minutes left, the Eagles threw the last knockout punch thanks to an unlikely source in freshman Caleb Steger.
Averaging just 1.3 points a game coming into the night, Steger hit a new season-high of nine points. Coming off the bench, he hit a trio of 3s in under a span of three minutes to extend BC’s lead to 66-48 in the final segment of the game.
At the media timeout, his teammates mobbed him at half court.
“There’s some games he doesn’t get in, but his head never goes low,” Payne said. “He’s always got the same energy. He worked for what he deserved. I’m definitely proud of him.”
Four players for Harvard scored in double figures. Tey Barbour led the Crimson with 15 points, while Hinton and Chandler Pigge each scored 12.
Unfortunately for the Crimson, the rest of the team scored eight points total on 4-of-14 shooting.
The Eagles, now 4-4, get a week off before returning to action. They host LSU next Wednesday, Dec. 3, as part of the ACC/SEC Challenge.
