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The Eagles lose a close game to the Wolfpack as the Pack rebound from two tough losses against high-ranked teams with a 17-14 victory over Boston College.
Jaylen Samuels added an 8-yard scoring run for the Wolfpack (7-3, 5-1 Atlantic Coast Conference). They had lost to third-ranked Notre Dame and No. 4 Clemson, respectively, the previous two weeks.
With wins in their last two ACC games, they have a chance to reach a program first.
''It's always nice to get a winning taste back,'' North Carolina State coach Dave Doeren said. ''Our goal at the end of the week was to try to get to seven wins in the ACC, which has never been done. It's a great goal, a lofty goal.''
Quarterback Ryan Finley completed 13 of 32 passes for 146 yards for NC State.
''It was hard coming up here in this cold weather,'' Samuels said of a game-time temperature of 27 degrees. ''We knew it was going to be tough to play these guys, they're tough, physical.''
Hines injured his ankle early in the Notre Dame game and was limited in the loss to Clemson.
''Not only did we have him, but we had him back healthy,'' said Doeren, who called him a ''difference maker.''
AJ Dillon carried 36 times for 196 yards, going over 1,000 yards to set a school-freshman record for rushing yards for the Eagles (5-5, 3-4), who had their three-game winning streak stopped.
Thadd Smith had a 12-yard TD run for the Eagles, who lost starting quarterback Anthony Brown with a right leg injury early in the second quarter after he crumpled to the ground in pain when he was untouched on a cut. His right knee appeared to buckle.
''It didn't look good,'' BC coach Steve Addazio said. ''What does that mean? Obviously he's going to have some testing done to try to figure out exactly what he did.''
BC led 14-10 after Smith's run, but Hines went down the right sideline for the game-winning score.
The Eagles had a chance to tie it with just under five minutes to play, but a bad snap spoiled their chance for a 39-yard field goal attempt. Holder Jeff Smith rolled out and fired an incomplete pass near the goal line.
BC had linebacker Kyle Bletzer recovered a lateral from Samuels at the Wolfpack 23 before Smith scored on a jet-sweep four plays later.
Kyle Bambard's 41-yard field goal with three seconds left in the opening half gave NC State a 10-7 edge after Tyrone Riley blocked a punt.
BC had moved ahead on Dillon's 66-yard score, but the Wolfpack marched 87 yards in 11 plays on the ensuing drive to tie it on Samuels' run.
The Boston College defense forced three turnovers and stopped Wake Forest with a pair of goal-line stands -- to go on to a 24-10 win in the ACC Conference opener.
Running back Andre Williams rushed 35 times for a career-high 204 yards and a touchdown. The Eagles matched its win total from last season with a 24-10 victory over Wake Forest on Friday night.
Boston College freshman Olivier Hanlan took the ACC by storm with an outstanding season upon which he averaged 15 points and 4 rebounds. Georgia Tech is probably still having nightmares as he exploded for 41 in the ACC Tournament. Take a peek below at some of his rookie season highlights.
The phrase “Basketball is a game of runs,” is something that basketball players hear from the elementary level. From Boston College’s performance on Thursday against Georgia Tech, it is evident that they have been listening to their coaches when they told them that.
Georgia Tech and Boston College had their only regular season match-up on March 9th, which was the last game of the regular season for both teams. It was a fierce battle that ended in BC winning by two points after starting out slow. This first-round match-up of the ACC tournament started off parallel to their only regular season match-up, but would be nowhere near as close of a contest. Georgia Tech came out of the gates strong, starting the game on a 15-0 run and they looked as though they would run away with the game. Fortunately for Boston College, basketball is in fact a game of runs, and their performance after facing this deficit attest to this. Boston College’s coach, Steve Donahue, called a timeout to regroup his young team, who started the game differently than they had planned, this timeout would prove to be the difference in Boston College’s performance the rest of the day. Boston College answered this run with a run of their own and closed the half on a 38-18 run; their combo guard and ACC rookie of the year, Olivier Hanlan, who finished the first half with 21 points, did majority of the damage to close the half out.
Boston College went into the break up 38-33, and came out of the second half as if they had never gone in the locker room. BC picked right back up where they left off, pushing their lead to double figures early in the half. Hanlan also continued his hot, soon to be record breaking, performance. He was hitting on all cylinders, and his barrage of threes in the second half killed any thoughts of a Georgia Tech comeback. He helped push his team’s lead to 25 points at one point in the second half and along with leading his team to a statement victory, he broke 3 Freshman records for the ACC Tournament. He broke the record for the most Field Goals Made (14); most 3-point Field Goals Made (8); and he broke the old record for the most points by a freshman in a tournament game by scoring a spectacular 41 points, one point better than the previous record that was shared between two UNC standouts, Harrison Barnes and Tyler Hansbrough.
BC completely dominated the second half with little resistance from Georgia Tech. Boston College won the game 84-64, a 35-point turnaround from how they started the game. Boston College will play Miami, the top seeded team in the tournament, tomorrow at 12 pm.
