Robinson, Bowman carry Boston College past NC State, 74-66

BOSTON -- Jerome Robinson scored 24 points, Ky Bowman added 19 and Boston College beat North Carolina State 74-66 on Wednesday night.

Conar Tava added 13 points and A. J. Turner 10 for the Eagles (9-8, 2-2 Atlantic Coast Conference). A year ago BC went 0-18 during the regular season and lost its only conference tourney game.

Dennis Smith Jr. led the Wolfpack (12-5, 1-3) with 15 points. Terry Henderson had 14.

In a contest that saw 12 lead changes and neither team holding more than a two-possession lead in the opening 34 1/2 minutes, the Eagles used a 6-0 spurt to move ahead 63-56 on Mo Jeffers' tip-in of Robinson's missed short jumper with 6:23 to play. The basket capped a 13-5 run.

After Maverick Rowan hit a 3-pointer for N.C. State, the Eagles scored the next five points to take control.

The Eagles had a nine-point advantage sliced to four, but Tava hit two free throws with 30.2 seconds to play.

BC had jumped to 8-2 edge and Wolfpack coach Mark Gottfried called timeout before things got away quickly.

On Sunday, N.C. State fell behind 26-4 in the opening minutes of a 51-point loss to then-No. 14 North Carolina.

BIG PICTURE

N.C. State: Coming off the lopsided loss at UNC, the Wolfpack needed to play better just to regain confidence before a favorable stretch of three straight games at home -- all against non-ranked conference foes. They responded with a decent effort.

Boston College: When Robinson and Bowman both are scoring, the Eagles are proving they can play with anyone in the league so far. That was the case again on Wednesday when the pair were clearly the main focus offensively on most trips down the floor.

20-SOMETHING

Robinson had his conference-leading 13th game of 20 or more points.

UP NEXT

N.C. State: Hosts Georgia Tech on Sunday.

Boston College: Travels to Syracuse on Saturday in a rematch of their New Year's Day game played at BC. The Eagles won that contest by 15.