SAME FEDORA-NEW CROWN?

[PointGuard]

Nov. 19, 2025: Bradley Braves (1-0) vs Boston College Eagles (1-0) at Silvio O. Conte Forum, Chestnut Hill, MA

Chris Nelson, walk-on PG

Bradley poured in 53 points in the 2nd half against Sacramento State enroute to an 87-64 crushing victory earlier this week.

We had a shaky start and fell behind 8-2, but scratched and clawed our way back to take a 14-12 lead with 12-1/2 minutes remaining in the first half. SG James Lilly had scored 8 points already at that point. The refs were tough on us, saddling SF Earl Betts and PG Willie Lofton with 2 fouls each in the first 8 minutes of play. That forced Coach Fed to rely heavily on our bench. Bradley took advantage to recapture the lead and go ahead by 5. Our guys chipped away to again go ahead and then totally outplayed the Braves in the final five minutes to forge a 41-31 halftime lead. Coach Aura praised our defense which held Bradley’s shooting to 36% but even though we were +5 in rebounding, he stressed working harder on getting position and blocking out opponents in the 2nd half. Our leading scorers were James Lilly and Marvin Reese with 8 points apiece.

Bradly got hot and we went cold in the 2nd half. Midway through the half, the Braves had gone ahead by a single point at 56-55. We then scored the next 6 points and refused to give up the lead. With 2 minutes to go we were holding onto a 71-69 lead. Jon Ray rattled in a jumper to put us up by 4. With time winding down, the Braves were forced to foul allowing us to pad our lead in the final minute. We ended up with a hard-fought 78-72 victory. We did it by outshooting Bradley 47% to 41% and dominating the boards 41-29.

SG James Lilly and SG Jon Ray both scored 14 points. Lilly picked up a double-double by also hauling in 10 rebounds. PF Marius Witt finished with 10 points and 7 boards. We only hit 2 of 17 three’s, so Coach Fed won’t be happy about that even though we won.

[PointGuard]

Nov. 23, 2025: Boston College Eagles (2-0) vs Chattanooga Mocs (1-1) at McKenzie Arena in Chattanooga, TN

Kevin Abney, 1st Assistant Coach

SF Carl Hackworth scored 34 points in Chattanooga’s opening game and is averaging 22.0 ppg by hitting 67% of his shots. The Mocs loss was at the hands of Gonzaga. Chattanooga has a fast pace offense with a lot of freedom. Our defense needs to slow them down and force turnovers. Coach Aura encourages input so that keeps things interesting for us as assistant coaches.

Although the lead shifted back and forth a few times, we held a very small lead throughout most of the first half. It would have been larger had we been able to throttle Carl Hackworth. Double teaming sure wasn’t working against him. With about 5 minutes to go in the half, we finally were able to pull away from the Mocs, running off 13 straight points, and took a 39-25 lead with 2 minutes remaining. When the claxon sounded ending the half, we sported a 46-29 advantage. SG James Lilly poured in 19 points in the half, hitting 6 of 8 from the field including 1 for 1 from 3-point range and sunk all 6 of his free throws.

Chattanooga got their offense clicking in the 2nd half and began chipping away at our lead. Midway through the half they had closed to 62-53. Our guys rose to the challenge though by kicking our offense into gear. We spurted out to a 93-75 bashing on the Mocs. We hit 52% of our shots and knocked down 32 of 34 free throws. We were able to give everyone time on the court, including our two walk-ons.

SG James Lilly lit it up tonight for 30 points. PF Marius Witt and C Steve Ross each scored 11 points and PF Marvin Reese added 10.

After the game, Coach Aura and I had a long talk about our team. Both of us are amazed at how well our bench has played in all 3 games thus far. We’d both underestimated them. They’ve combined to score over 40 ppg in our first 3 games. Heck, 4 of our 6 top scorers are bench players. And tonight our 11th player off the bench, SG Jason Dunn scored 9 points in 6 minutes of play at the SF position. If he can continue being productive at the 3, we might be able to run a 3-guard offense effectively for portions of games.

[PointGuard]

Boston College Eagles (3-0) vs Austin Peay Governors (0-2) at Winfield Dunn Center in Clarksville, TN

Jason Caldwell, Freshman Center

This is the 3rd on the road in our first 4 games this season. Fortunately both games this week have been in Tennessee, so travel was reduced. But last night at our hotel, the fire alarm went off 2 times between 3 and 5 a.m. Coach Fed let us sleep in, but after getting woke up like that and having to walk down stairs and out of the building and wait around until the fire department arrived and did their check, I just didn’t sleep well. But I’m still not used to travelling and staying in hotels so these away games are tough.

The scouting report says that their two starting big men are pretty talented and are very good rebounders, so need to get my energy level up even though I didn’t get enough sleep. Brown, their center, is a big solid guy like me so there’s gonna be a lot of pushing and shoving going on.

We got out on top 13-8 and I scored 5 of those points. But then the refs called a 2nd foul on SG Adam Howard just 5 minutes into the game. The Governors drew into a tie a few times but we never let them take the lead and finished the half ahead 37-29. SG Jon Ray was our top scorer with 8 points.

It took us 3-1/2 minutes before we got our first points of the 2nd half. Lilly made them pay for having to sit through most of the 1st half and led us to a 60-43 lead with 8 minutes left. Coach Fed praised me for out-rebounding Austin Peay’s forecourt duo. We held on from there to come away with a 69-61 victory. PF Marius Witt and I both had 8 rebounds, so our 16 combined boards were 7 more than the starting forecourt for Austin Peay and contributed to our team’s 38-33 rebounding advantage. We also combined for 14 points compared to just 9 for our interior counterparts.

SG Jon Ray came off the bench to score 20 points and SG James Lilly finished with 16 points and 8 rebounds. Our bench again came through for us, scoring 37 of our 69 points.

[PointGuard]

Nov. 30, 2025: Kansas State Wildcats (3-1) vs Boston College Eagles (4-0) at Silvio O. Conte Forum, Chestnut Hill, MA

Gerald McEntire, President of “Eagles Soar”

Eagles Soar, the basketball fan club for BC, has a really good turnout for this game. Not surprising since the Eagles have won all 4 of their games (3 of them on the road) under their new coach. Eagles’ fans are getting excited. Some of our group seem to feel we’re sure to qualify for the NCAA Tourney this coming March, but I’ve been following BC basketball long enough to know that the season will likely get real long once we begin having to go up against tough ACC competition.

So far Coach Aura has the team playing great defense, holding opponents to 63 ppg. Tonight’s game and next week’s game against New Mexico provide the level of competition needed to prepare the team for its upcoming participation in the Emerald Coast Classic tournament a couple weeks from now.

Coach Aura is trying something different tonight. He has Marvin Reese starting at SF in place of Earl Betts. Reese has been strong coming off the bench, but that’s mainly been at the PF position.

Reese hit a 3 from the corner just 90 seconds into the game. Reese scored on a put-back a minute later and then hit a free throw a minute after that. Instant offense! Coach Aura is living up to his reputation of keeping fresh legs on the floor…frequent subbing at all positions so that the Wildcats who are on the court are more tired than the Eagles. With 11:42 to go BC is up 18-10 and Kansas State has made twice as many turnovers as the Eagles. Our guys then went scoreless for 3 minutes. Kansas State took a one point lead a few times but the Eagles recovered to lead 40-34 at the end of the half. SG James Lilly had another big half, scoring 16 points plus grabbing 5 rebounds, dishing out 3 assists and making 2 steals.

Kansas State scored 6 unanswered points in the first minute of the 2nd half to tie the game. The Eagles played uninspired ball the entire half. Kansas State slowly pulled away to give BC their first loss, 71-64. The Eagles in the 2nd half disappointingly reminded me too much of their teams the past few years.

SG James Lilly was the only player to play well for Boston College, finishing with 25 points, 8 boards, 5 assists, and 4 steals. For the first time this season, the bench didn’t produce well for the Eagles.

[PointGuard]

December 7, 2025: New Mexico Lobos (1-3) vs Boston College Eagles (4-1) at Silvio O. Conte Forum, Chestnut Hill, MA

Coach Fred Aura:

It appears that some of our fans were let down by our loss to Kansas State. It wasn’t surprising to me since Kansas State is just a more talented team at this point. But, like our fans, I was disappointed that after playing well in the first half and coming away with a nice lead, we let it slip between our fingers and failed to answer the alarm bell when we fell behind in the 2nd half. Losing at home is a no-no. I expect our guys to fight harder for the entire 40 minutes tonight.

I’m starting Marvin Reese at SF again tonight, hoping he will give us an early boost, then after giving him a breather, bring him in at PF to spell Marius Witt when Marius tires. SG James Lilly has come on strong with a couple really big games. He’s now averaging 18.6 ppg. Not only is he far and away our top scorer, he’s also our leading rebounder (7.0 rpg...amazing for a 6’0” guard) and his 2.4 apg is 2nd best on the team. I certainly want James to keep it up, but want to make sure the team realizes that they shouldn’t rely on him all the time. We need others to step it up and put points on the board, clear the boards, and find the open man. I’ve really been encouraging Marius Witt to shoot more.or He’s hitting 67% of his shots so I want him to put the ball up more often.

Speaking of a guy who carries the load, PG Larry Roach is averaging 18.0 ppg for New Mexico while hitting 47% of his FG’s and 44% of his 3’s. We need to play well and win this game to prepare for the tournament we’re playing in next week, so containing Roach is important.

SG James Lilly scored our first 6 points and then PG Willis Lofton scored 5 of our next 6 points as we jumped out to a 12-2 lead after 6 minutes of play. From there we expanded our lead to 24-4 midway through the half as our defense forced the Lobos to make 10 turnovers and hit just 2 field goals in the first 10 minutes. New Mexico’s offense picked up during the final 10 minutes of the half, but our offense continued to perk. When the half ended we were on top 47-22. The biggest difference was that we forced the Lobos to turn the ball over 14 times while we only had 2 turnovers. James Lilly led our scoring with 12 points.

We started slowly in the 2nd half but regained our momentum. As our lead increased to as much as 30 points, I was able to play the far end of our bench for extensively. We smashed New Mexico by a final score of 90-62.

Topping our scoring were SG James Lilly with 26 points and C Jason Caldwell and SG Jon Ray who both scored 17.

So a great tune up for the Emerald Coast Tournament, if we can carry over how we played tonight.

[PointGuard]

Emerald Coast Classic

Articles from The Boston Herald Sports Section:

Eagles in Emerald Coast Classic

The Boston College Eagles are the 4th seed in the Emerald Coast Classic tournament that begins tomorrow in Niceville, Florida. The Eagles are matched against the #5 seed Northwestern University Wildcats in the opening round.

Other teams in the tournament include: #1 seed West Virginia, #2 seed Mississippi State, #3 seed Temple, #6 seed New Mexico, #7 seed DePaul, and #8 seed Texas-El Paso.

The Eagles have surprised some this season by winning 5 of their first 6 games. But both BC and Northwestern, their opening game opponent, have played and lost to Kansas State this season. Boston College’s new head coach Frederick Aura said, “There’s some good teams in this tournament. Northwestern has been up and down this season so it’s difficult to predict what they’ll do against us. We just have to play our best and see how things turn out.”

Emerald Coast Classic Quarterfinals

#1 seed West Virginia Mountaineers (4-3) vs #8 seed Texas-El Paso Miners (2-5): West Virginia scored an easy 76-54 victory in a game in which the Mountaineers began pulling away after 5 minutes of play and never looked back.

#2 seed Mississippi State Bulldogs (4-1) vs #7 seed DePaul Blue Demons (3-3): Mississippi State beat DePaul 89-81 in a game that was close all the way with 19 lead changes and 12 ties.

#3 seed Temple Owls (4-0) vs #6 seed New Mexico Lobos (1-4): Temple won 85-83 but had to come back in the 2nd half and never led by more than 4 points.

#5 seed Northwestern Wildcats (3-3) vs #4 seed Boston College Eagles (5-1) at Raider Arena in Niceville, FL

The Eagles came out firing on all cylinders. Midway through the first half they had hit 10 of their 13 field goal attempts and led 28-19. Northwestern cut the lead to 4 but then BC went on a late run that gave them a 49-35 halftime advantage. The Eagles knocked down 68% of their shots and were led by SG James Lilly’s 12 points.

BC scored the first 6 points in the 2nd half to increase their lead to 20 points. Boston College’s shooting cooled in the 2nd half, but their defense tightened up so that Northwestern was unable to seriously challenge. The Eagles came away with a resounding 79-62 win to get them into the semifinals to take on #1 seed West Virginia.

SG James Lilly scored 24 and had 5 rebounds, 3 assists, and 3 steals. C Jason Caldwell scored 15 points and SF/PF Marvin Reese added 11 points for the Eagles.

After the game Coach Aura said, “We played our best offensively of the season in the first half. That put the Wildcats on their heels and they were never able to recover. James Lilly played his usual outstanding game, but Jason Caldwell came on strong in the 2nd half which was instrumental in our holding onto a big lead.



Emerald Coast Classic Semifinals:

#2 seed Mississippi Bulldogs (5-1) vs #3 seed Temple Owls (5-0): After trailing by 2 points at the half, Mississippi State’s defense shut down Temple in the 2nd half to achieve a 71-64 win.

#1 seed West Virginia Mountaineers (5-3) vs #4 seed Boston College Eagles (6-1):

Even though their win-loss record wouldn’t indicate it, West Virginia was a huge favorite in this game, primarily due to the Mountaineers stingy 1-3-1 zone defense that has allowed just 62.4 ppg and the offensive output of SG John Redden who has scored over 25 points in 4 of West Virginia’s 8 games. BC’s coach Fred Aura said, “We’ll need to play our A game to have a chance against West Virginia. The Mountaineers have some really talented players. This will be our first game against a team that uses the 1-3-1 zone so we will need to figure that out quick.”

West Virginia hit 7 of their first 9 three-pointers enroute to a 25-5 lead at the 12:13 mark of the first half. Even though the Eagles then began to start hitting some shots, the Mountaineers continued to score also and finished the half leading BC 46-24. SG James Lilly scored 9 but no other player on the Eagles had more than 4 points.

BC scored 9 of the first 11 points in the 2nd half to get within 15 points of the Mountaineers. But West Virginia would let them get no closer even though the Eagles shut down their hot shooting. But the overall strength of the Mountaineers was just too much and Boston College bot thumped 80-57, knocking them out of the tournament.

PF Marius Witt and SF/PF Marvin Reese each scored 14 and SG James Lilly had 11 points and 10 rebounds. But West Virginia had 5 players scoring in double figures.

“West Virginia took us out of the game early. Then they were just too powerful for us to make a prolonged run against them,” said Coach Fred Aura. “West Virginia was seeded #1 for a reason. Obviously we have a lot of work to do before we can compete with the top teams. But our guys fought hard to play the Mountaineers even up in the 2nd half and will work hard to improve throughout the season.”



Emerald Coast Classic Championship:

#2 seed Mississippi State Bulldogs (6-1) vs #1 seed West Virginia Mountaineers (6-3): West Virginia controlled the game in the first half but only led by a 39-33 score at the half. Mississippi State rode their dominance of the boards to even the score at 75-75 at the end of regulation. In the overtime, West Virginia forced the Bulldogs to make numerous turnovers which limited Mississippi State to just 2 points and the Mountaineers won the championship by a score of 84-77.

[PointGuard]

Dec. 13, 2025: Cornell Big Red (6-3) vs Boston College Eagles (6-2) at Silvio O. Conte Forum, Chestnut Hill, MA

Kinsey Ramsey, Boston College Chronicle reporter

Persistence pays off. I finally was able to be selected as the primary sports reporter for the school newspaper. It’s 2025 and still tough for a female in sports media. Since the basketball team is doing much better this season than it has in recent times, I’ve been interviewing players and coaches to develop a major article highlighting the team. When I spoke with James Lilly, the team’s star player, he said that he almost didn’t come to BC. He had a scholarship offer to Indiana, but at the last moment decided he preferred to play nearer where his family is in Springfield, Mass so they could come to his games. Lilly, who is in his sophomore year here, is presently averaging 19.3 ppg and 6.9 rpg. Marius Witt, who is in his final year at BC indicated he hadn’t expected much change when Frederick Aura was named head coach. He’d already had 2 other head coaches during his career here and the team had poor records no matter who was the coach. But he said he was surprised by the changes Coach Aura has brought and he’s enjoying winning.

The refs worked over the Eagles in the first half, keeping Cornell in the game. Coach Aura picked up an early technical foul. The two teams traded baskets for most of the first half, but the refs’ whistles finally took their toll. The Big Red went to the line 24 times in the half but more significantly, 3 starters and a sub on the Eagles were benched due to getting into foul trouble. Cornell took advantage of this late in the half to pull away to a 50-42 halftime advantage.

The Eagles came out fighting both the Big Red and the refs in the 2nd half…and gradually trimmed the lead and then took a 63-62 lead with 13-1/2 minutes remaining in the game. The two teams exchanged the lead for several minutes but then again with the help of the refs Cornell opened a 10 point lead with 4 minutes left. BC made a fast and furious effort that cut the lead to just 2. But both starting guards had fouled out and both starting interior players had 4 fouls apiece. The Eagles had to foul in the last minute and ended up losing 96-92. Cornell won by getting to the line 18 more times and scoring 13 more points than BC.

Leading the scoring for Boston College was C Jason Caldwell with 17 points, followed by SF/PF Marvin Reese with 13 and SG James Lilly with 12. For Cornell, C Philipp Ray scored 27 points, scoring 13 of those points on 17 trips to the line.

Coach Aura said, “We played a good game but when the other team gets to the foul line 48 times, it’s tough to win. We outscored Cornell by 9 from the field. The game was just taken out of our hands.” Asked about the technical against him, Aura responded, “I deserved it, but the refs deserved what I said. I thought I had reasons to voice my wrath more later in the game but didn’t want to get tossed out of the game.”

[Wayne23]

FREAKIN' REFS!!!
"Get some rope.
Find a tree.
Let's go hang
The referee!"

We used to chant this at hoops games when I was in high school; it really was done jokingly. Now I'm sure people chanting this would be arrested. Different times.

[PointGuard]

Dec. 21, 2025: Rutgers Scarlet Knights (6-2) vs Boston College Eagles (6-3) at Silvio O. Conte Forum, Chestnut Hill, MA

Jason Braxton, Athletic Director

This is the team’s final game before ACC play begins. The team needs to come back from a disappointing loss to Cornell in our previous game and finish pre-conference play on an upbeat.

We’ve got a big crowd here…a good mix of students, alumni, and local fans. It’s “Fedora Night” so most of the students are wearing fedoras and there will be a “toss a card into a fedora” contest at midcourt during halftime plus “pass the fedora” amongst the crowd for contributions to combat childhood hunger in the Boston area. Coach Fred Aura sported a brand new fedora on the top of his head. I often wonder how many fedoras he has.

The Scarlet Knights came out firing bullets. On the other hand, the Eagles had a hard time getting the ball in the hoop early in the first half. With 8 minutes remaining, the Eagles had fallen into a 39-19 hole and our crowd was nearly silent. During the media timeout, Coach Fed must have read the riot act to the team. Because they came out playing lock-down defense and totally dominating the boards. And they put points on the scoreboard. By the end of the half, they had reduced the Rutgers’ lead to 47-41 and our crowd was back in the game with the students coming up with a sustained fedora “wave”.

Rutgers held onto a small lead in the 2nd half. But we finally went on a 10 point run that gave us a 64-61 lead with 6 minutes remaining. Rutgers struck back to recapture a 3 point lead, but with 3 minutes to go SF Earl Betts buried a 3 from the left corner that put us back on top 71-70. C Jason Caldwell then stripped the ball away and we brought it upcourt where PF Marius Witt launched a 3 that went cleanly thru the silks to put us up by 4. Rutgers came back to score on a tightly contested inside jumper on which there was a highly controversial foul. They converted the 3 point play. With the Eagles trying to run don the clock, Rutgers was forced to foul. Caldwell sunk 2 free throws. The Scarlet Knights rushed off a shot that failed to go down. We rebounded and PG Willis Lofton converted one of two free throws to ice the game. We came away with a thrilling 77-73 victory to send our home crowd home happy.

SG James Lilly led our scoring with 19 points plus had 8 rebounds. SF/PF Marvin Reese scored 12 and PF Marius Witt had 8 points and 10 rebounds. BC held Rutgers highest scoring player, SG Ty Layne to just 9 points, but their SF Robbie Dollar finished with 21 points.

So a tip of my fedora to Coach Fed and our team!

[PointGuard]

Boston College Chronicle
Kinsey Ramsey, Sports Reporter

BC ALSO STANDS FOR "BIG CHANGES"

Our Boston College men’s basketball team finished their pre-conference schedule with a record of 7-3. The team won 6 of their first 7 games this season giving support to Athletic Director Jason Braxton’s comments before the season began that new head coach Frederick Aura was going to create a new era of basketball strength to BC. “We hired Fred Aura because he had a proven record of turning basketball programs around. Instantaneous success was never anticipated or expected, but we felt his ability to recruit and develop players will ultimately result in the Eagles again becoming a basketball power.”

But there still are plenty of doubters, including prolific Boston sports blogger JJ Conroy who has said, “As long as Boston College remains in the Atlantic Coast Conference, at best they will be a middle of the pack team that’s unable to contend with the real powers in the conference. So don’t be bamboozled by the hype of the BC athletic department. I can’t see them ever being much more than a .500 team.”

The recruiting of two four-star, top-100 recruits already this fall has given hope to long-suffering BC fans, though. Ronda Vegara, who said she’s been coming to games at BC for over 20 years said, “I like the way Coach Aura has infused a new attitude within his players. They are coming onto the court thinking they can win rather than looking like zombies. And they are playing with an intensity that has been missing here for a lot of years. I can still recall the thrill of our teams being good and being part of March Madness. I want to experience that again.”

It’s not only fans, but players who are noticing differences. “When I was recruited, I was sold on coming to Boston College to be part of a revitalization of the program. Unfortunately what I experienced the first 3 seasons here was the opposite. There just wasn’t a real effort to recruit the players needed to improve the program. So I suffered through 3 years of energy-draining losses,” said Marius Witt, the team’s starting power forward. “I have to admit I doubted that there would be any change when the third head coach I have had here was hired several months ago. Each time there was a coaching change, the same song was played…a seeming rendition of ‘Better Days Are Coming’ by Justin Timberlake. But then nothing ever changed.” When asked why he thought things were different now, Witt replied, “Coach Fed has challenged each of us to improve and play our absolute best every time we go out on the court. And I think the entire team has bought into that. Just look at how our bench is performing. Often they come in and play as well, or better than we starters do.”

Star shooting guard James Lilly echoed Witt’s comments, adding, “I’m so much more motivated for our games this season that I was last season as a freshman. I give the credit for that to Coach Fed. He’s brought a positivity to the team that was missing in the past. I seriously considered transferring after last season, but sure am glad I didn’t now.”

Thus far the Eagles are averaging 77.5 points per game while holding their opponents to 69.6 points per game. Coach Aura said, “While we’ve played some good teams thus far, we definitely will be moving up to a much higher level of opposition during conference play. But the team knows they need to pick up their level of play to go up against the powerhouses we’ll be matched up against in the next couple months.”

The team’s top scorers are: SG James Lilly (18.5 ppg), SF/PF Marvin Reese (10.6 ppg), and C Jason Caldwell (10.0 ppg). Lilly is also the team’s best rebounder, averaging 6.9 rpg with PF Marius Witt right behind with 6.5 rpg and Caldwell averaging 5.7 rpg. PG Willis Lofton has dished out 4.7 apg.

The Eagles begin ACC play this Friday when the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets (8-3) come to Silvio O. Conte Forum.