Boston College Stuns #18 UVA 60-53

Boston College needed to play a near perfect game to beat the defending national champions #18 Virginia. Due to some incredible play that is exactly what they did winning 58-53 tonight at Conte Forum. In front of a raucous mixed crowd, Boston College rode the hot hand of freshman Jay Heath who led the Eagles with seventeen points. In a game where all the talk going in was about UVA's defense, it was BC's slashing offense that led to the upset.

The Eagles led for most of the game, led by some stellar defense that limited the 'Hoos interior offense and forced perimeter shots. Steffon Mitchell and Jarius Hamilton played strong on the inside combining for 14 rebounds, while Mitchell had three blocks. Jared Hamilton was stellar from the field, knocking down 16 points, almost all in the second half, while shooting 5-8 from the field.

The Eagles started off the game strong opening up a lead, and the game had a different feel than many expected. BC's scorers were able to slash to the hole, and were hitting threes while UVA looked all out of sorts on offense. Even with things all going BC's way, the Hoos looked like they were ready to pounce as they charged back after BC started to build a lead.

The second half continued to look like it was going UVA's way as the 'Hoos stormed back and tied it up after BC opened up a double digit lead to start the half. Tony Bennett's crew was able to tie with it under two minutes left, and it appeared that BC was going to let this slip away. However, some clutch shooting by the Eagles including a massive three pointer by Jared Hamilton gave Boston College the three point lead. After a missed shot by Kody Stattmann, Steffon Mitchell hit a pair of free throws to seal win for Boston College.

This was a huge win for the Eagles as they defeated not only a ranked team, but the defending national champions. In a game where it looked like it would be a matchup nightmare, remember BC was one of the worst offenses in the country, they were still able to put up 60 points against the Hoos.. Credit goes to Jim Christian and his staff who put together a stellar game plan that limited UVA's scoring attack, while putting his players in position to score.  All of this happened tonight without leading scorer Derryck Thornton, and Nik Popovic.