The Boston College Men’s Basketball team opened up the start of their 2026-27 season with a 76–50 victory over Wagner.
It was an offseason of change, change, and more change. A new head coach. A roster full of transfers and rookies. And a basketball program hungry to be relevant once again.
The start of the Luke Murray era for BC Men’s Basketball started with the team taking a quick 7-3 lead. It became the Zak Smrekar and Luke Hunger show early as the duo scored the Eagles first 14 points.
At 13:51,
BC led 14-5. Armoni Zeigler subbed in, and showed his impact immediately with high energy and playmaking on both ends of the floor. His key plays on defense led to two different transition scores for BC by Zeigler himself and a made 3 by Ernest Shelton. It was 21-12 BC with 9:30 left in the first.
Brandon Benjamin began making an impact by crashing the offensive boards, playing solid defense, and scoring back to back made baskets. BC started flowing strongly offensively and went on an 8-0 run, and led 29-14 with 6:16 left in the first. They just toyed with Wagner’s lackluster defense, but the Seahawks weren’t doing themselves any favors with their questionable shot selection.
The Eagles soon led 36-16. However, as the half winded down their offense stalled a bit, and Wagner found some rhythm and cut the lead to 15 to close out the half, where BC led 38-23.
The second half was reminiscent of the Eagles slow end of the first half with more offensive struggles. A large part of this was Wagner adding serious pressure with their pressing. It was successful to start, but eventually BC found enough cracks to exploit the Seahawks defensively. With 16:58 to go, the Eagles led 43-27, thanks to the increased aggression by Money Williams, who saw two trips to the FT line.
Zeigler continued to make plays and may very well find himself on the ESPN highlight reel again. With 12:49 to go, BC led 46-33 before Zeigler cruised past his defender 1v1 and threw down an emphatic dunk. Despite the exciting play, Wagner kept hanging around by keeping the deficit no greater than 12 for the next 3:00.
Williams made two quick FT’s and the Eagles led 52-38. This was right when the team heated up from deep, with made 3’s by Shelton and Williams. It was 58-39 by this point, and Shelton soon connected on another made 3 which felt like the dagger. Boston College led 61-41 with 6:00 to go.
In the final six minutes, the player who made their mark was Money Williams. He drew fouls, found openings for his teammates, and added a driving layup. The Eagles cruised to victory soon after.
As a team, the Eagles shot 49% from the field and 7-17 from three point range. Williams led all scorers with 22 points and 11-15 from the FT line. Zeigler added 14 points off the bench, and Brandon Benjamin scored eight points with 10 total rebounds, six of them being offensive boards. Smrekar added 12 pointson 6-11 shooting. Defensively they held Wagner to just 30% shooting and allowed only three made 3 pointers.
Up next, the Eagles host UMass on November 6th at 4:00 pm EST.
