Share
GREENSBORO In case you didn’t think Olivier Hanlan was the best freshman in the ACC, the Boston College guard made his case again Thursday in the first round of the ACC tournament.
Hanlan scored 41 points – an ACC tournament freshman record – to lead the eighth-seeded Eagles to a runaway 84-64 win against ninth-seeded Georgia Tech in the first game at Greensboro Coliseum.
“Olivier has done a great job ... and today he was putting on a show,” teammate Joe Rahon said.
“There is no doubt whenever you’re penetrating you’re looking at wherever his defender is at, and he has it going, it’s going to more than likely go in.
“There was no doubt I was trying to get him the ball and he was doing a great job of moving without the ball and he put ’em in. It was a great performance.”
The Eagles trailed 15-0 and didn’t score for the first 5 minutes, 18 seconds.
After Hanlan got in gear, it was only a matter of time before the Yellow Jackets got left in the dust.
Boston College, winners of four straight, moved on to face top-seeded Miami at noon Friday.
Hanlan won the ACC Freshman of the Year award, beating Duke’s Rasheed Sulaimon and N.C. State’s T.J. Warren.
He set the tournament record for points in a first-round game and broke Harrison Barnes’ freshman record for points in a tournament game.
Hanlan made four 3-pointers in the first half and 8 of his first 12 field goals.
Hanlan’s 3 at 3:11 in the first tied the game at 31. His steal and layup with 43 seconds left gave the Eagles their first lead, 45-43.
He made 8 of 10 3s for Boston College, which made 14 of 24.
“With all due respect to the scoring record it’s not anything we care about,” Boston College coach Steve Donahue said.
“It’s nothing I talk about. ... It’s all about our team and I would never want to take something like a record that an individual does is more important than what we do and I would never put it ahead of the team.”
The second half turned ugly quickly for the Jackets, who lost at BC five days ago. Marcus Georges-Hunt led Georgia Tech with 21 points and 11 rebounds.
