Money Williams had 22 points, five rebounds and four assists to lead Boston College to a season-opening 76-50 victory over visiting Wagner on Tuesday.
Williams scored 19 of his 22 points in the second half in Luke Murray’s head-coaching debut. Armoni Zeigler posted 14 points and Zak Smrekar added 12 for the Eagles while Brandon Benjamin contributed eight points and a game-high 10 rebounds.
Kareem Watson scored a team-high 13 points for the Seahawks, who returned no players from last year’s team. Taj Bryant and Cam Estevez each scored 10 points for Wagner, which shot 30.4% from the field and hit just 3 of 15 from 3-point range.
BC, picked to finish 17th in the ACC’s preseason poll, seized control early. After Wagner took a 3-0 lead, the Eagles scored the next 12 points capped by Luke Hunger’s 3-pointer.
Benjamin scored six points during an 11-0 run that put BC up 32-14 with 4:49 left in the half. The Eagles extended their lead to 36-16 on a Williams free throw with 3:42 to go.
Wagner held BC scoreless over the final 2:35 of the first half to pull within 38-23 at halftime. Hunger and Zeigler each scored nine points to lead all scorers.
The Seahawks trimmed BC’s lead to 48-36 on three Watson free throws with 12:21 to play, but a 6-0 run that ended with a Williams 3-pointer gave the Eagles a 58-39 lead with 8:02 left.
A Smrekar dunk capped a 7-0 run that put the Eagles up 65-41 with 4:40 remaining, then two Williams free throws pushed the lead to 69-44 with 3:03 left as Wagner missed 16 of 17 field-goal attempts over an 11-minute stretch.