On Tuesday evening, Boston College lost 80-72 to Florida State.
Boston College controlled the tip, but after a Luka Toews turnover it was FSU who opened the scoring with a tough stepback jumper in the midrange. The first five minutes saw a lot of run-and-gun action from both teams. Fred Payne missed his first shot — a forced midrange jumper — but quickly rebounded with a long 2 and another 3, while Toews hit a wing 3 of his own. The Eagles struggled on the defensive glass, however, allowing FSU a handful of extra possessions after failing to corral a miss. The two teams were knotted at 8 at the 15:06 mark.
Out of the media timeout, the Eagles found another gear. Toews found Payne along the baseline for a slick late-clock floater, before Forte collected a steal. Despite an FSU called timeout, the Eagles did not take their foot off the gas. The Eagles played strong defense, forcing tough FSU shots, and — most importantly — turned the Seminoles over. Jayden Hastings made back-to-back excellent reads after getting doubled in the post, one leading to Toews’ second triple and the second finding Shaw wide open under the basket for a dunk. Forte then found his rhythm from deep, drilling two 3s to push BC to a 16-0 run heading into the second media timeout.
FSU steadied the ship with two free throws, before capitalizing on a long Eagles miss with an and-1 transition layup. Kapke got one of those points right back with a pair of free throws of his own, but McCray bullied Steger for an easy layup to really get the Seminoles’ offense into gear — he would connect on a floater on FSU’s next possession. BC’s offense, however, remained in gear — Forte got some dribble penetration on back-to-back possessions and found Aidan Shaw for an open dunk before finding Payne for another 3. The Eagles could literally do no wrong; Aidan Shaw even got in on the action by cooking his man off the bounce for an and-1 bucket. By the 7:43 mark in the first half, the Eagles had already set a season record for threes made in the first half with seven.
Aidan Shaw continued to put together his best half — by FAR — in an Eagles jersey, collecting a steal and two blocks while finishing another big dunk off a nice down screen. The only issue for the Eagles over the first 15 minutes of the game were foul trouble for the bigs, with Hastings and Kapke both picking up two. Despite the struggles of their offense (including a 3-17 mark from 3 in the first half), the Seminoles’ 11-14 shooting from the free throw line kept them in the game. Chase Forte hit his third three of the game to snap a bit of a scoring drought, before finding Kapke for a clean righty hook shot. In their most complete half of the season, the Eagles took a 42-32 lead into the locker room.
The second half began with a bad Toews pass and a missed Florida State shot, before Toews found an open Payne for his fourth three of the game. FSU answered via a Wiggins three, but BC’s offense kept humming with a slick Luka slip to a wide open Kapke trey. Toews was feeling it tonight — I’d have to check, but I’m almost certain his XXX assists are a career high, and outside of a handful of possessions he largely handled FSU’s full-court pressure very well. Unfortunately, Kapke subsequently picked up his third personal to further hamstring BC’s rotations.
As they had in the first half, free throws kept FSU in the game. The Eagles managed to push the lead to fourteen, but BC struggled to keep the Seminoles off the line; a couple of very questionable calls allowed FSU to cut the lead back to ten despite over four minutes without a bucket. Toews continued his excellent night with his patented midrange pull-up, but Payne missed a three before yet another called foul on the BC defense. The Seminoles managed to get into the bonus with almost 13(!) minutes left in the game. Steger entered the game because of Forte’s third personal, and promptly gave the Eagles a jolt with a wing trey before forcing a turnover with some strong defense. Toews hit another midrange jumper, but both offenses really slowed down roughly halfway through the second half. FSU cut the lead to ten once again with just under ten minutes to play, but Forte immediately got two of those back with a slick assist on a Hastings dunk. BC did a really good job breaking FSU’s pressure and capitalized with some momentum barreling towards the rack.
FSU finally cut the Eagles’ lead to single digits with a corner three at the 7:50 mark. Hastings missed four straight free throws to keep the door open, and FSU promptly took advantage with an and-1 layup from McCray. Forte ended the 12-2 FSU with a much-needed and-1 bucket for the Eagles, but he bricked his free throw as the charity stripe woes continued. McCray then walked into an uncontested trey to cut the lead to one, but Payne connected on a floater to answer right back.
Stop me if you’ve seen this before: with five minutes to play, the Eagles found themselves in a two-possession game. Forte came up with a huge rebound and went coast-to-coast for a clutch and-1 bucket, this time — thankfully — hitting the free throw to restore a five-point lead. Unfortunately, it was FSU who scored the next five points of the game to draw level for the first time since 16:10 the first half.
Boston College did not manage to get a clean look out of a timeout, and FSU capitalized with an and-1 bucket off of an offensive rebound. With 2:33 to play, FSU took a 70-68 lead. Despite a tough Fred Payne midrange out of the timeout, FSU instantly found an open shooter to take a three-point lead. On the next possession, Luka Toews turned the ball over and McCray crossed up Kapke for an easy two. The Eagles will be left to rue another missed opportunity, ultimately falling 80-72.