Stop me if you’ve heard this before….Boston College started the game with no energy and on their heels. NC State picked up the Eagles full court throughout the entire first half, and the BC guards did not respond well. BC turned the ball over 5 times in the first 4 minutes to fall to an early 10 to 2 deficit. Their offense is completely stagnant, and Earl Grant continues to look to Donald Hand, Jr. to create offense. He had a fantastic first half with 13 points, but continues to take tough shots because there is no flow to the offense. NC State, on the other hand (no pun intended), fired on all cylinders. Jayden Taylor had 16 in the first half, and the Wolfpack turned the Eagles over 14 times while they only had 3 turnovers. The Wolfpack dominated the first half, and headed into the break with a 44 to 29 lead.
NC State continued to control the game in the second half, and Boston College continued to look lost on the offensive end. The Wolfpack picked up the BC guards full court the entire game, and Boston College was completely taken out of their game plan. With about 10 minutes remaining the Eagles trailed 62 to 50 and had a chance to cut the Wolfpack lead to single digits, but 2 missed 3s by Hand and Elijah Strong led to a layup by Dennis Parker, Jr., which pushed the Pack lead back to 64 to 50. With about 5 minutes to play, Fred Payne corralled a long rebound and fell out of bounds into the Boston College bench. It appeared as if Will Middlebrooks pushed Payne out of bounds, but it wasn’t called and the referees gave NC State the ball. After the play, Earl Grant showed the most emotion I’ve ever seen and was charged with a Technical foul. In games like these, the Eagles need more emotion out of their head coach. I will never understand why they don’t speed the game up, and press the opposing team, especially when they can’t get anything going in their offensive sets. The Eagles eventually cut the Wolfpack lead to 9 with 2 minutes remaining, but it was too little too late. NC State won the game 70 to 62.
Throughout the game, there was a lot of standing around on the offensive end for BC, which led to forced shots as the shot clock ran down. The Eagles also couldn’t hold onto the basketball, finishing the game with 16 turnovers, 14 of which were in the first half. Hand once again led BC in scoring with 22 points on 6 of 17 from the field. Some of the other scoring came from Chas Kelley and Chad Venning who finished with 10 and 14 respectively. For the Wolfpack, Taylor set a new ACC career-high with 19 points. NC State did a great job of dictating the pace of this game throughout its entirety. They wanted to play fast and pressure the BC guards, and that led to 15 points off of the 16 BC turnovers.
Boston College continues to really struggle this season, and find themselves in the bottom of the ACC standings with NC State and Miami. If they want to make it to the ACC tournament, they’re going to need to find some rhythm on the offensive end. The Eagles next game is against Virginia Tech at 9 ET at home on Tuesday night.