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The key to winning Saturday against NC State was that Olivier Hanlan got a lot of help. Tonight it was Dmitri Batten who came in as the Eagles' leading scorer for the first time all season to help Boston College to their second straight ACC victory. Boston College got only their 3rd conference win of the season Monday night and won back-to-back conference games for the first time all season, beating the Hokies 66-59.
On Saturday, NC State seemed to be hungover from their emotional victory at UNC. Tonight perhaps Virginia Tech was still hungover from their emotional overtime loss to Duke and loss to in-state rival Virginia.
Early on in the game at Cassell Coliseum, it was Patrick Heckmann finding Aaron Brown and Olivier Hanlan on back door cuts to get BC some points on the board and loosen up the Virginia Tech defense. After the Hokies got burned a few times for being overly aggressive on D, scoring came a little easier the rest of the way for the Eagles. Heckmann lead the team in assists again with 4, but unfortunately had as many turnovers.
Boston College was in control for much of the first half and then was able to extend their lead to as many as 22 in the second half. But then it almost got real interesting late as Virginia Tech cut the lead to 6 with 2 minutes left, followed by a quick Aaron Brown turnover. Adam Smith missed a 3 from the corner, which could have changed the outcome of the game. From there Virginia Tech started fouling and never got it any closer than a 6 point margin.
Dennis Clifford looked good at times during the game but got called for traveling twice in the post in the second half. Clifford still had a solid game overall, finishing with almost a double double grabbing 9 boards and scoring 11 points.
Olivier Hanlan and Aaron Brown both finished in double digits as per usual. Hanlan's 15 points was below his typical production lately as he shot 1 of 7 from beyond the arc, but fortunately no more was needed for his team to come away victorious.
BC now has Wake Forest coming up this weekend—a winnable game that could give the Eagles three consecutive wins going into the ACC Tournament. But even with that win, BC will finish the season having only beaten one ACC team that will not play on the first day of the ACC Tournament (N.C. State).