Tobacco Road Report

By David

My buddies at TRR told me to expect an Eagle’s beatdown, but I was skeptical. Can you blame me? They were right though and BC (10-4 overall, 2-0 ACC) righted the ship a bit and got an early road win in the ACC season, always a good thing.

Jared Dudley (20 points, 8 rebounds) returned from injury and Sean Marshall (23 points, 14 rebounds) went ballistic. I am being literal, Marshall shot 9 for 22 from the floor including 3 for 7 from behind the 3 point line. Tyrese Rice (17 points, 10 assists) showed some of the point guard play the Eagles will need from him to be a success in the ACC this season. Marshall, Dudley and Rice accounted for 52 of the Eagles’ 69 shots.

The Eagles’ flex offense does not often let them run away from teams but they had a 23 point lead in the second half. Just past the halfway mark in the second half the Wolfpack had an 11-1 run, but that got them to 56-42 down. Never good when you go on an 11-1 run and still see yourself down by double digits. The Eagles just came to play and were up 37-19 at the half. They also returned to their more physical style of play, something this branch of TRR loves to see.

When they play physical the Eagles rebound better, especially on the offensive end where they had 20 rebounds in this game. They out-rebounded NC State 45 to 40 in the game overall.

BC is at Wake (9-5, 1-1) next on Tuesday before a home game this weekend against Virginia. Wake won four of their last five. NC State sees undefeated Clemson (#18 in the country) come calling on Tuesday. We will see if BC can build on this success and make some waves in the ACC season since they blew some opportunities early on (Cough! Duquesne Cough!). One note on the season so far, BC seems to lose in pairs, just an observation, that’s all.