Can BC enact their revenge for a close loss earlier this month?
On Tuesday night in Tallahassee, the Boston College Eagles men’s basketball team will face off against the Florida State Seminoles once again, this time in FSU’s territory. The teams met just a couple of weeks ago in Chestnut Hill for a game that came down to the last possession, in which BC couldn’t get a shot off and the Noles claimed a 1-point road win. The Eagles will look to take revenge this time around.
Who: Florida State Seminoles (13-12) vs. Boston College Eagles (15-10)
Where: Donald L. Tucker Civic Center, Tallahassee, FL
When: Tuesday February 20th
Tip-Off Time: 7pm ET
How to Watch: Tuesday’s game will be broadcasted live on the ACC Network
How to Follow: Follow the game on X (Twitter) by checking in with our live coverage at @bcinterruption
Florida State has gone down a bit of a spiral since the last time these two teams played against each other. FSU is 0-3 since that match-up, dropping games to Virginia, Virginia Tech, and Duke. All three of those games were decided by single-digits, though, so the Seminoles haven’t exactly rolled over and died. They’ve mostly just struggled on defense, something that wasn’t as much of an issue in their win against Boston College. But BC has scored 80+ points on both Louisville and Miami in their last two games, finding a rhythm offensively that has been lacking for much of the season, especially from three-point range. If the Eagles stay hot behind the arc, we could see a much different result this time.
Something that hurt BC’s chances in the last match-up was their slow start, something that’s been a trend all season for Boston College. The Eagles went down 16-2 to open the game against FSU on February 6th, immediately putting themselves at a massive disadvantage. So when BC started playing well later in the game, they were merely chipping away at the FSU lead instead of widening a lead of their own. If Earl Grant can get his guys to come out with a lot of energy early, it will be a much better sign for their chances of winning the game.
Nobody on FSU has really been a dominant force on offense this season. Junior forward Jamir Watkins leads the team in scoring with his 14.5 points per game, but otherwise it’s mostly a team effort to put points on the board. Watkins put up 10 points against BC in their last match-up, but otherwise every other player on FSU was held in the single-digits, largely in part to the 11 turnovers that the Eagles forced. It will take that kind of collective defensive effort from the Eagles again to come away with a victory.