CHESTNUT HILL, Mass. – Whenever Boston College got a big play in Sunday’s 61-60 win over Miami, it seemed like Reggie Jackson was always the one making it. It was far from a one-man show, but the Eagles’ most athletically gifted player came through when his team needed him to.
While everyone at Conte Forum will remember the dunk that wasn’t – Jackson drove to the basket in the final minute of the game and brought the crowd to its feet with a highlight-reel dunk over Miami big man Reggie Johnson, only to be the victim of a bad charging call – well before that play Jackson was in the center of the action, and after it as well. The Eagles are a veteran team that has no freshmen and eight upperclassmen on the roster, but it was their youngest player who was constantly coming up big.
It really started late in the first half, when he helped Boston College grab the lead and some late momentum. Jackson soared for an offensive rebound and got fouled, hitting a free throw to put the Eagles up by two. It was a scary play at first because he was almost undercut by Cyrus McGowan, but fortunately landed just fine. Right after that, he stole the ball, threw it over his shoulder after beating a Hurricane player to it, far enough ahead for Corey Raji to pick it up and lay it in at the other end. Then he rebounded a miss and hit a jumper at the other end for the 31-25 halftime lead the Eagles had.
In the second half, the Eagles were starting to break the game open when Jackson struck again. With Miami seemingly waiting for the under-16 media timeout, Jackson rebounded a Miami miss and hit a short jumper at the other end to put the Eagles up by 14, forcing Frank Haith to call a timeout after all. About a minute and a half later, with the shot clock running down, Jackson drilled a deep three-pointer right near the BC bench to give the Eagles a 15-point lead, their largest at the time.
With every big play, one could only figure he would be right there for the next one, and it wasn’t a surprise when one shot after another went in. When he hit the deep three-pointer, it fit right in with how the game was going, and was just what the Eagles needed.
“That’s a huge factor that we need him to contribute with,” said Raji, who had 17 points and nine rebounds, seven at the offensive end. “Now that we don’t have Tyrese (Rice) and Rakim (Sanders) is out, we need people to step up. I feel he’s been doing a pretty good job of that since Rakim’s been hurt.”
Sanders has played all of four minutes thus far this season due to a suspension and then an injury in his first game back that has kept him sidelined to this point and likely will a little longer. That has led to Jackson starting all but one game thus far and playing nearly 35 minutes per contest, which leads the team after he averaged 20 minutes per game last season. Besides being second in scoring, he leads in rebounding with 8.1 from the perimeter, and only Biko Paris and Tyler Roche have a better assist/turnover ratio than Jackson. As Roche has seven assists with four turnovers on the season, Jackson’s numbers look a little more impressive (41 assists, 25 turnovers).
Jackson seems to play with a good deal of freedom and is always free-spirited in interviews, so to the untrained eye it would appear that confidence isn’t an issue. In fact, he got a few laughs out of reporters when commenting on the play where he was nearly undercut, saying, “My legs were burning, I already knew my body was kind of tired, as soon as he ran under me, I just curled up and tried to close my eyes and tried to go to sleep.” But Rice talked on a couple of occasions last year about keeping confidence up with him in what the team was trying to do, and that matter came into play before Jackson came through again later in the game.
Before the charging foul, Jackson made the biggest play of the game after the Hurricanes completed their rally to tie the game at 57. Joe Trapani, who struggled shooting the ball all day in going 1-13 from the field, missed a three-pointer. But Jackson ran the baseline from the left side to come under the basket, soared up to grab the miss on the right side and put it back in to give the Eagles a 59-57 lead with 1:48 left. Then after the charging foul, Malcolm Grant’s three-point shot was no good, and who was there to get the rebound? None other than Jackson, who was fouled and had two free throws that could seal the game.
“It was probably the calmest I’ve ever been on free throws in my life,” said Jackson, who finished with 18 points and nine rebounds. “I really didn’t feel any pressure. We’re at home, I knew the crowd was going to be kind of quiet.”
He sank the two free throws to seal the game, and they were made more important when Grant hit a shot from just past halfcourt at the buzzer. Before the free throws, he got a little help.
“In practice, when we’re shooting free throws and he misses, he gets kind of down on himself,” Raji said. “I just tell him, don’t worry about it, hit the next one, and I guess that worked.”
It worked for one more big play from the youngest player on the veteran team. It worked for one more big play from the guy who was making them all afternoon.
