“My teammates trust me,” Rivard said. “My teammates—especially Brandyn and Oliver—are really doing a good job penetrating and kicking out, and they’ve made it pretty easy for me.”

Free throws iced the game for the Crimson—it hit 23 of 24 from the stripe overall—and Harvard closed out a convincing 78-69 victory.

Although the Eagles shot 50.9 percent from the field and 38.9 percent from three, the Crimson managed to limit the Eagles’ high-powered offense by forcing turnovers (14), limiting second-chance points (six), and keeping the home team off the free throw line (four makes on eight attempts).

Trapani led Boston College with 21 points, and guard Reggie Jackson and forward Corey Raji chipped in 18 and 12 points apiece.

“I was really pleased with our defensive effort,” Amaker said. “We had to defend outside the three point line. They’re so dangerous out there. I thought we did a tremendous job of finding the shooters and contesting shots.”

The Eagles were Harvard’s penultimate non-conference opponent. The Crimson opens its conference schedule at Dartmouth on Saturday before traveling to George Washington the following weekend for the final of non-conference matchup.

“We’ve beaten some good teams…the first couple years [I’ve been here], but I think we’ve been complacent after that, especially going into Ivy League play,” McNally said. “We don’t have the non-conference wins to get into the Tournament. We know that we’ve got to win the Ivy League…[This win] makes us feel good about ourselves: we’ve got to internalize that. But then tomorrow, we’re right back to work because we’ve got [Dartmouth] this weekend.”

—Staff writer Timothy J. Walsh can be reached at twalsh@fas.harvard.edu.