Boston College Men’s Basketball Manhandled in Demoralizing 92-62 Loss to NC State

On Saturday afternoon, the Boston College men’s basketball team faced off against a tough #22 ranked NC State Wolfpack squad.

Fresh off of an exciting road win at VA Tech, BC had some momentum coming into this one. Unfortunately, all of that went away pretty quickly. The Eagles ran into a very hungry Wolfpack squad who never lifted their foot off the gas pedal. BC turned the ball over an astonishing 17 times, allowing NC State to run them out of the gym on the fast break. The Pack shot the lights out from beyond the arc (15-30 3-pt), which is something the Eagles have struggled to defend all season. It seemed like any time BC gained some traction, State would respond immediately with a three. Quinten Post continued his dominant play, scoring 20 and grabbing 5 boards, however, it was not enough.

The second leading scorer in the ACC, Terquavion Smith started the first three minutes of the game on fire, dropping the Pack’s first 10 points. Quinten Post continued his streak of hot starts, putting up 8 points on 4-5 shooting, making his presence felt inside early. Post led all scorers with 16 points in the first half. Yet, four early turnovers by the Eagles led to too many Wolfpack buckets, as the Eags trailed by 10 midway through the first half. The offense looked shaky at best against NC State’s stout defense. It was easy to see why they lead the ACC in steals and turnovers forced per game.

After picking up his first foul, Post went to the bench, and Jaeden Zackery curbed any injury concerns by coming off of the bench early in the game. With Post out, BC struggled to contain big man DJ Burns, who had an early 10 points and 7 rebounds in just 10 first-half minutes. Later, a beautiful pass from Post led to a nice JZ bucket with about 6 minutes to go in the half. JZ had some impressive minutes, scoring an efficient 8 first-half points, including hitting the only three-pointer for the Eagles in the entire first half.

BC really struggled to contain the Wolfpack backcourt as Jarkel Joiner and Terquavion Smith shot 5-9 from beyond the arc to combine for 25 points in the first half. The Eagles seemed to have no answer, shooting only 4-14 from 3-point land, following a game where they knocked down 12. BC just did not have the firepower to hang in there with a team that leads the ACC in scoring.

After a wide-open missed dunk by Post and a smoked layup by JZ, the Eagles were completely out of sorts, trailing by 23, with 15 minutes left in the second half. These tumultuous plays really characterized BC’s unconvincing play today.

The Eagles really needed somebody besides Quinten Post to step up today. Secondary scoring has been an issue for BC all year, and besides a good start for JZ, nobody else did much. Mason Madsen had 8 points on 2-7 shooting from beyond the arc. Prince Aligbe was nowhere to be found, as he failed to score a single point. Makai finished with only 5 points on 2-8 shooting.

Chas Kelley built on his big game from earlier this week with 7 points and 3 steals, as he began to come alive late in this one with a nifty layup and three-pointer. Even though it was much too little too late, it was good to see some more flashes out of the freshman.

After a really impressive performance on Wednesday night, the Eagles looked lost and bewildered on their home court. Earl Grant emptied the bench early, leading to some chaotic Armani Mighty minutes, as well as some garbage-time tick for walk-on guard Quinn Pemberton. It never really felt close, as Smith, Burns, and Joyner combined for an absurd 61 points on their way to a 92-62 blowout win.

Next up, The Eagles will take travel to Pittsburgh to take on Pitt (17-7, 10-3 ACC) at 9:00 PM EST on Valentine’s Day.