Boston College opened its 2026 season with a comfortable 76-50 win over Wagner on Tuesday night at Conte Forum, and the Eagles did it with balance, pace and a defense that never let the Seahawks settle in.
Money Williams set the tone from the start and finished with a game-high 22 points, plus five rebounds and four assists. He also went 11-for-15 at the free-throw line, giving Boston College a steady scoring presence all night long. Behind him, Armoni Zeigler gave the Eagles a lift off the bench with 14 points on 6-of-9 shooting, while Žak Smrekar added 12 points and four rebounds in 37 minutes.
Boston College also got useful production from Ernest Shelton and Luke Hunger, who scored nine points apiece. Shelton knocked down three 3-pointers, and Hunger hit 80% of his shots. Brandon Benjamin made his presence felt on the glass, grabbing a game-high 10 rebounds off the bench to go with eight points, two steals and a block.
The Eagles’ defense was just as important as the scoring. Wagner shot 30.4% from the floor and made only 17 field goals, with just three coming from beyond the arc. Boston College controlled the paint and the open floor, winning points in the paint 34-24 and fast-break points 14-5.
The game opened with Wagner hitting a 3-pointer, but Boston College quickly answered with a 12-0 run. Smrekar fueled that burst with three layups, and Hunger added an and-one at the rim plus a 3-pointer.
Zeigler then scored on back-to-back layups to push the lead to 18-9 with 11:54 left in the first half. Shelton followed with a 3-pointer at the 9:49 mark, and Williams later capped a 9-2 run with a driving layup to make it 38-18, the Eagles’ biggest lead to that point.
Boston College went into halftime ahead 38-23 after shooting 51.9% from the field and outscoring Wagner 22-10 in the paint.
The second half followed the same script. After a Williams and-one, Benjamin cleaned up a Zeigler miss with an offensive rebound tip-in to make it 45-27 at the 15:44 mark.
Shelton drilled his third 3-pointer of the night on a fast break with 6:04 left to stretch the margin to 61-41. Smrekar then delivered the highlight of the closing stretch, stealing momentum with a fast-break and-one dunk with 4:40 remaining to push the lead to 65-41.
Zeigler closed it out with a 3-pointer in the final 11 seconds, sealing the 76-50 finish.
Boston College held Wagner to 25% shooting in the second half and did not allow a 3-pointer after the break.
The win moved the Eagles to 1-0 all-time against Wagner and 1-0 in the 2026-27 season. Boston College is now 73-21 in season openers and 74-15 in home openers.
Next up is Massachusetts on November 6 in the Hall of Fame Series Boston. Tipoff is set for 4:00 p.m., and the game will stream live on ESPN+. Boston College leads the Minutemen 26-22 in the series, though UMass took last year’s meeting 76-74.
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