WASHINGTON, Sporting Alert – Devon Bookert scored 15 points off the bench, and Florida State handed Boston College an 88-66 defeat in the New York Life ACC Tournament first round at Verizon Center on Tuesday. Box Score
The Eagles, who have won just seven games all season and none in 18 Atlantic Coast Conference contests, were falling for the 25 time this season, including losing 19 in a row after Tuesday’s defeat.
Bookert also had five rebounds, four assists and two steals in the win, as after leading Boston College 39-30 at halftime, FSU outscored its opponent 49-36 in the second half to registered its largest victory ACC Tournament history.
Dwayne Bacon and Malik Beasley each scored 13 points for the 11th-seeded Seminoles (19-12), who got 45 points from its bench and advanced to the second round to the sixth-seeded Virginia Tech.
Benji Bell added 10 points off the bench for Florida State, which shot 58.6 percent from the floor and 56.3 from 3-point range en route to securing its third successive win.
“The quality of our depth obviously stepped up and allowed us to keep certain guys fresh,” Noles head coach Leonard Hamilton said.
“In a tournament that you expect to be playing for a while, if you can get everybody involved, it extends your energy level and hopefully it will be a big difference as we continue to move through the tournament.”
Meanwhile, senior guard Eli Carter led Boston College with a game-high 21 points while senior center Dennis Clifford finished with 15 points and nine rebounds before fouling out with 9:30 minutes left in the game.
“It’s been real difficult losing, obviously, setting history and all that stuff,” said Carter. “But guys just kept playing.
“As much (talk) as is out there, we didn’t really pay too much attention to it. We just kept kind of playing.”
Freshman Matt Milon ended with 12 points and Jerome Robinson supported with seven points, six assists and five rebounds in the defeat for the Eagles.
It was the ninth time in the past 11 seasons that Florida State was winning at least 19 games and it goes into Wednesday’s contest with Virginia Tech in high spirit.
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