Boston College Eyes Payback as Virginia Comes Calling

The Boston College Eagles will attempt to halt a two-game slide when they take the floor against the Virginia Cavaliers on Sunday afternoon at the Silvio O. Conte Forum.

BC enters this contest coming off back-to-back road drubbings at the hands of Duke and North Carolina State. The Eagles lost both games by a combined 39 points.

The Eagles (12-16, 4-11 ACC) and Cavaliers (20-8, 10-5 ACC) meet for the second time this season. The Cavs triumphed, 65-51, back on January 26. Virginia used a 16-3 run to open to pull away from the Eagles after trailing by two at the break. The Cavs crushed BC in the second half, 41-25, to coast to the victory.

Virginia comes into the game riding the momentum of its 73-68 win over No. 3 Duke on Thursday.

This is also an important game for the Cavs in terms of seeding in the ACC Tournament.  Virginia is currently tied for third with North Carolina and only a game ahead of NC State.

In their first meeting, the Cavs got 16 points each from Akil Mitchell and Justin Anderson to lead all scorers.  Anderson was the model of efficiency converting 7-of-9 field goals and making both free-throw attempts in only 25 minutes of action.

Jonetl Evans handed out six assists for the Cavs while Paul Jesperson pulled down a team high seven rebounds.  For the game, Virginia out-rebounded BC by nine, 29-20.

Ryan Anderson led three Eagles in double figures with 14 points.  Olivier Hanlan and Joe Rahon each scored 10 in the loss. Eddie Odio grabbed seven rebounds off the bench for BC.

If BC wants to avenge the earlier loss, it needs to shoot the ball much better.

In the first game, the Eagles shot an abysmal 36.2 percent (17-of-47) from the field.  By contrast, the Cavs made 27 of their 48 attempts, a 56.3 percent clip.