ACC TOURNAMENT: Previewing Boston College Women’s Basketball vs. Florida State in Round 2

Boston College women’s basketball has been announced at the #8 seed in the week’s ACC Women’s Basketball Tournament, and the Eagles will face #9 seed FSU on Thursday at 2 PM. The winner of Thursday’s game will go on to face #1 NC State in the quarterfinals.

This will be the second meeting between these two teams this season. Earlier in February, the Eagles fell to FSU in Tallahassee by a score of 66-58. The Eagles’ loss was largely due to a rough second quarter, and weak shooting overall - the Eagles shot just 30.9 % against FSU, but have averaged out to 51.3% in their 3 wins since.

FSU is 2-1 since defeating BC, losing to #24 UNC before upsetting #22 Georgia Tech in a 2 point win and then beating Pitt by 5 on the road.

The Eagles are generally a stronger offensive team than FSU, averaging 72.6 points per game to FSU’s 66.3 and shooting 45.4% on the season. Defensively, these two teams are pretty evenly matched, with FSU allowing fewer points per game, but with the Eagles leading in rebounds per game and steals per game.

The Eagles will need to focus on shutting down Morgan Jones if they want to win this rematch. Jones is the only FSU player averaging more the 7 points per game - she averages 14.5 points per game, and scored 17 against BC this season. BC, on the other hand, has 2 players that average in the mid-to-high double digits (Cam Swartz with 16.1 and Taylor Soule with 15.3), plus Makayla Dickens who averages 9.8 points per game, and freshman Maria Gakdeng who averages 8.9 points and a team leading 6.4 rebounds per game.

The Eagles are currently one of the last 4 teams in the NCAA Tournament based on ESPN’s Bracketology, while FSU is one of the last 4 teams out, so whoever wins this matchup is effectively crushing the other program’s chances of making the NCAA Tournament and sending them to the NIT.