CHESTNUT HILL, Mass.— In Donald Hand Jr.’s return to the court, he hit a career milestone.
The redshirt junior entered Wednesday night’s contest against Wake Forest off the bench after missing three games due to an unspecified injury.
Heading into the game, the Virginia Beach, Va., native had 995 career points, just five short of hitting the 1,000-point mark.
A little over a minute after coming into the game, Hand Jr. drilled a three-pointer with 12:58 to go in the first half to get within two points of the mark.
With 5:44 to go in the half, he made a layup which put him at 1,000 career points.
The 48th 1,000 point scorer in program history‼️ pic.twitter.com/wMt6wx9gNe
— BC Men’s Basketball (@BCMBB) February 25, 2026
In total, Hand Jr. played nine minutes and recorded five points, one rebound, and one assist in the Eagles’ last second 68-67 win over Wake Forest to break an eight-game losing streak.
Boston College men’s basketball head coach Earl Grant spoke about Hand Jr.’s accomplishment after the game.
“Proud of him for that,” said Grant. “All 1,000 at Boston College. So, he’s a Boston College guy, so that’s number one. I think that when he’s 40 years old, he’ll realize how special that is to be a Boston College guy. [He] has his education, he played three years here, a thousand points, and he’s got a place to call home for the rest of his life. So, really happy for him.
“It was nice to have him back, but again, he hadn’t played in five games,” said Grant. “He practiced maybe once or twice. So now that we have a chance to have him to practice a couple more practices, that’ll set him up to go build on what he did tonight and help us finish the season strong.”
Eagles guard Fred Payne also spoke about Hand Jr. reaching that milestone and his return to action.
“Amazing,” said Payne. “Like I told him before the game, I’m proud of you. Like I’m proud [that] my brother’s back on the court. Obviously, he got his thousand points. So I mean, we’re going to celebrate him tonight. It’s all about him. That was a great job what he did, but obviously it was the first game. So I mean he did what he had to do.”
Next up, Boston College travels to Coral Gables, Fla., to take on the Miami Hurricanes on Saturday afternoon. Tipoff is set for 2 p.m. ET on ACC Network.
