CHESTNUT HILL - Corey Raji scored his 1,000th career point in the first half and scored nine points as Boston College defeated Indiana 88-76 in the 11th annual ACC/Big Ten Challenge on Wednesday night at Conte Forum.
"I thought it was a great college basketball game," said Boston College coach Steve Donahue. "I thought the energy in the building was great and both teams played terrific basketball."
The Eagles haven't lost in the ACC/Big Ten Challenge, going 5-0 since joining the ACC back in 2005. The loss is Indiana's first of the season and its seventh in the annual interconference challenge that began in 1999.
Reggie Jackson finished with a game-high 27 points for Boston College and was very pleased with his team's shooting.
"Phenomenal, I'll take that any night," said Jackson, whose Eagles shot 50.9% from the field. "At fifty percent, I believe we can beat anybody in the nation."
Biko Paris tied a career-high with 19 points, Danny Rubin scored 10 points and both Joe Trapani and Josh Southern added nine points.
"They were getting a lot of balls to me," said Paris, who hit 6-of-11 shots and 3-of-7 threes. "It was really like a catch-and-shoot kind of game for us. Reggie and the rest of the guards, Gabe (Moton) and Danny, did a teriffic job finding us."
Christian Watford led the Hoosiers with 23 points. Maurice Creek scored 15 points and Verdell Jones III added 11 points in the losing effort. Jeremiah Rivers, son of Celtics coach Doc Rivers, scored two points in 20 minutes for Indiana.
Boston College (5-2) and Indiana (6-1) were tied 4-4 one minute and 39 seconds in, but the Eagles went on a 19-6 run to take a 23-10 lead with 8:37 left in the first half. The Eagles maintained the pace and built the lead to 14 three times before taking a 43-29 advantage into halftime.
Raji became the 37th player in school history to score 1,000 points on a put-back under the basket with 5:23 left in the first half. He entered Wednesday night's game with 994 career points in 100 games at Boston College.
"I think that that stuff is great," Donahue said. "I think he should feel good about it, but I've never been a coach that even talked about it at all. I think it's something that Corey will have in his house when he's older and appreciate it a lot more now. That's nice, that's what it should be."
Raji didn't score his first basket of the game until the 14 minute mark on a straightaway jumper. Raji's second basket, a jumper from the corner of the key, came with 9:18 to play in the half.
After being fouled hard on the way to the basket, Raji had a chance to reach 1,000 career points at the free throw line. However, Raji missed the first but made the second, leaving him one point shy of the milestone. He ultimately reached it a few minutes later and finished the half with nine points.
"I thought he played a terrific first half," said Donahue. "Corey was playing so well against a physical team."
Raji did not play in the second half, as he hit his head on the aforementioned foul.
"He hit his head pretty hard, so we're going to evaluate him tomorrow," Donahue said. "My concern was, obviously, we need all of our guys."
Jackson had a game-high 11 points in the first half for Boston College. Paris scored eight points and both Trapani and Southern added six points a piece for the Eagles.
Watford scored 11 points for Indiana. Jones had six points and Creek added four points for the Hoosiers.
Boston College made 16-of-31 shots (51.6%) and hit 4-of-12 threes (33.3%) while Indiana connected on 11-of-28 shots (39.3%) and made 2-of-8 threes (25%) in the first half.
The Hoosiers scored the first eight points of the second half and worked away at the Eagles' lead, ultimately trimming their deficit to one point, 60-59, with seven minutes left. However, Trapani answered with a three at the other end, giving Boston College a 63-59 advantage.
"Indiana played so great at the beginning of the second half, and nothing was going right at that point" Donahue said. "I just thought we had great resolve at that point, just fighting through. I thought everybody had their feel on it with different plays, poise on the offense."
Jordan Hulls' pull-up jumper once again brought the Hoosiers within one at 63-62. However, Paris hit another three to give the Eagles some breathing room and a 66-62 lead.
"Not really," Paris said when asked if he was concerned about giving away the lead. "When you're at that point, you go with it. I knew, eventually, they were going to make a run, and we withstanded that run."
After another Indiana basket, Danny Rubin buried a three from the corner and Jackson made a reverse layup to put Boston College up 71-64 with 3:58 left to play, and the Eagles wouldn't look back.
"Basketball is a game of runs," said Paris. "We made a run in the first half, they came out and made a run (in the second half), and we made a run at the end. It's just about who makes the most runs and also who can withstand those runs, and we did that tonight."
Boston College made 28-of-55 shots and 10-of-24 three pointers (41.7%) and Indiana made 28-of-55 (50.9%) but only made 7-of-22 shots from beyond the arc (31.8%).
The Eagles had 32 rebounds, 17 assists, five steals and six turnovers. The Hoosiers totaled 27 rebounds, 15 assists, four steals and turned the ball over 10 times.
Boston College will face the University of Massachusetts in the battle for the Commonwealth Cup in the first annual Boston Tip-Off Classic at TD Garden on Saturday (6:30 p.m. ET, Comcast Sportsnet).