BC 61, Virginia Tech 59: Eagles Win Consecutive ACC Games
By Joe Micik
If you didn’t think BC’s first ACC win on Thursday was a confidence-builder or a step forward, what do you think now?
On Saturday afternoon, with the hockey team playing down the road at Fenway, the Boston College men’s basketball team defeated Virginia Tech, 61-59. The Eagles are now 7-10 (2-1) on the season, have won back-to-back ACC home games, and have beaten the Hokies for the tenth time in their last eleven games at Conte Forum.
The first half featured a great deal of cold shooting as neither team was able to get into any significant offensive flow. In fact, through the first eight minutes of the game, the two teams only totaled 15 points, but eventually, the Eagles and Hokies made their shots count. Boston College was tied, 27-27, with a second to go before the half, when Jordan Daniels launched a floater from deep in two-point range that fell at the buzzer, giving BC a 29-27 lead at the break.
The second half was better-played by the Eagles, as they ended up doing more than enough to push themselves past the Hokies. BC led by as many as 12 at one point, and until late, Virginia Tech had made an extraordinary number of offensive mistakes and put themselves too far away.
Towards the end, it was the Eagles making the mistakes, turning it over on numerous possessions in the last few minutes of the game while the Hokies attempted a comeback. Fortunately for BC, however, Virginia Tech could not make a shot until it was too late, and the Eagles were able to hold on.
Yes, I will thump my chest and say that I predicted BC would win more than one ACC game this season. Yet, there is not a single one of you out there, myself included, who believed that the Eagles would have two wins in their first three games. It doesn’t matter that the Hokies didn’t have Green, or that the Eagles didn’t play an outrageously good game wire to wire: what matters is that BC won again, and you can’t understate what kind of confidence boost this might be to this team. They’ve got to believe that they can win more games in this conference this year, and I don’t think any BC fans will complain if they find a way to do it.
Even if BC loses out and goes 2-14, I think we can put the “worst ACC team of all-time” talk to bed. There was a team last year in Winston-Salem that didn’t even get a second win, while BC is clearly playing better than at the start of the season and has won two of their first three. Unquestionably, this season won’t amount to much, but BC has already achieved more than expected. Anything else accomplished from here is gravy.
Again, there is no such thing as a bad win in the ACC, even though it’s now clear that the lower tiers of this conference are not as good as expected. Wins are wins however they come, and now that BC has their second one, they can focus on trying to get a third and keep shocking the college basketball pundits.
We will see the Eagles again on Thursday night in Raleigh as they take on the NC State Wolfpack.