Boston College Basketball at NC State: Unlucky Seven?

Bob DeChiara-USA TODAY Sports

The Boston College Eagles basketball team has made a recent habit of playing well in home games, and have actually won three of their last four. Away from the calm of Conte Forum, however, it has been a much different story for the second-year rebuilding team that has struggled to find its way in the dwindling 2012-13 season. BC has not won an away game since their ACC road opener at Virginia Tech in early January. The Eagles have lost six road contests in a row, most recently having gotten blasted by Duke, and will now slide across Tobacco Road to face the NC State Wolfpack to attempt to avoid their seventh.

Only 2-7 on the road for the season, Boston College basketball has rarely been able to replicate their stronger efforts away from Chestnut Hill. One of those came in their first ACC game of the season against this very same Wolfpack team: BC was highly competitive but could not cap off a comeback in the final moments, falling 78-73. This time, their work will be cut out for them as they will have to beat a solid foe in their own building.

The Eagles’ last outing was anything but good. Duke is a tough enough team to beat as it is — though, you guessed it, Boston College played a very close game against them at Conte Forum — but BC got off to a disastrous start and never recovered. With the way they’ve conducted their business on the road this season, it has almost become the expectation that the Eagles will not be nearly as competitive in these sorts of games.

Boston College’s road finale will come on March 5 at Clemson, a venue at which the Eagles have never won and have rarely played well. It is entirely possible that the Eagles will take their long road losing streak into next season if they aren’t successful against the Wolfpack tonight, even in spite of the fact that BC dropped Clemson up in Boston. As for NC State’s venue, it’s been a long time since BC’s last win there: that took place on January 6, 2007.

At this stage of the season, as Boston College basketball continues playing out the string, the details of the matchup are of little consequence. The Eagles are eventually going to have to win road games with some consistency if they intend to be a future tournament team, but it would not appear that this year will yield any results on that end. A win tonight would be a nice confidence boost, which is about all BC can hope for at this stage.

Tipoff is at 8pm; broadcast will be on local television and ESPN3.