Boston College-West Virginia Final Score: Mountaineers Escape Eagles With 70-66 Win

Boston College-West Virginia Final Score: On Friday night in San Juan, Puerto Rico, the West Virginia Mountaineers defeated the Boston College Eagles, 70-66.

Boston College-West Virginia Final: Game Synopsis

Like against New Mexico, Boston College came out of the gate swinging, taking a 9-4 lead into the first media timeout. This would grow to a 17-8 lead by the next media timeout, and a 32-21 lead at the half. Boston College played arguably their best half of basketball so far this year, forcing turnovers from the Mountaineers while making their shots and rebounding. It was as complete an effort in a half as they have put together in some time.

With the second would come challenges. West Virginia cut the lead down to six early in the half; though Boston College would stretch the lead back out to ten with 14 minutes to go, West Virginia then began a hard charge. What was once a double-digit lead for the Eagles narrowed down to two at the under-12 timeout with Jevon Carter helping lead the way.

The Mountaineers continued pressing the Eagles, and it paid off, as Boston College had a few more turnovers and West Virginia was able to tie and take the lead with about nine and a half minutes left. The momentum had completely sided with West Virginia, who ran their lead out to as much as seven with 2:36 left.

Boston College fought back in the last couple minutes, forcing a few WVU miscues and making their shots in what was a 65-64 game with 49 seconds to go; Olivier Hanlan made a terrific move to the basket to get the bucket and a trip to the free throw line, but his miss kept the Mountaineers in front. West Virginia then got a favorable call on the other end and converted a three-point play, and another turnover by the Eagles proved to be the difference. The Eagles had one more shot in the final seconds down three, but could not come up with the ball though they scrapped for it on the floor.

Boston College-West Virginia Final: The Stats

Olivier Hanlan led all scorers with 23 points, having made ten of fifteen field goals. Patrick Heckmann had 14 points and Aaron Brown had ten.

Three Mountaineers, Devin Williams, Juwan Staten, and Jevon Carter, all had 15 points to lead their team.

Boston College had a very good night from the floor, shooting 54 percent. West Virginia made 42 percent of their field goals.

Boston College-West Virginia Final: Bottom Line

The best thing we can say about Boston College tonight is that they did not quit. This was still a competitive game all the way until the end, even when it looked like the Eagles were going to let it completely slip away. Indeed, last year’s team probably would have never survived getting hit in the mouth by the Mountaineers, but this Boston College team had a shot in the final minute. Give them credit for their effort.

Any Boston College fan who saw this team play horribly for the last three seasons has to at least feel some semblance of pride in how the Eagles performed. Yes, they lost, and it was another disappointment, but it was not without good things. Boston College had a good half of basketball and stayed close to a good team all the way, even though they did not hold their lead. There is effort present that was not here last season.

It was again an imperfect effort with 21 more turnovers, and the press caused more than enough of those, but they fought.

Boston College-West Virginia Final: Next Up

Boston College will face the Dayton Flyers in their Puerto Rico finale at 4:30pm Eastern on Sunday.

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