Preview: Rematch on tap tonight as the Hoos welcome BC to JPJ

Boston College (13-13, 7-8) at UVa (17-7, 9-5)

8 p.m., ACCN

Virginia will go for a third consecutive victory tonight when Boston College heads down to Charlottesville for a rematch of an early January tilt in Chestnut Hill.

The Eagles upset a then-ranked Virginia team 60-53 at the Conte Forum that night, the first of three straight defeats for the Wahoos after a 3-0 start to conference play.

Since that last meeting, BC is 4-7 and lost its next four games after upsetting the Cavaliers at home without two of its best players in the lineup.

And since that four-game losing skid, the Eagles have traded wins and losses each time out, beating North Carolina, NC State, and Virginia Tech twice while losing games between those victories (to Louisville, Duke, and Miami).

Despite a grim postseason outlook, BC could play its way into a decent ACC Tournament seed with some wins down the stretch.

Boston College ranks 155th in KenPom, which is dead last in the ACC by a pretty wide margin, despite the fact that the Eagles have a respectable near-.500 conference record. From a metrics standpoint, tonight’s game features the two worst offenses in the conference, with UVa at No. 233 in adjusted offensive efficiency and BC lagging just behind them at 237. Like the Cavaliers, the Eagles have struggled to make shots, particularly from deep. They have made just 30 percent of their 3-point tries and just 47 percent of their twos. They also struggle at the free-throw line, to make matters just a bit worse. Boston College doesn’t take particularly good care of the basketball either which should bode well for Virginia in this meeting.

Despite all of that, BC did scratch out enough offense to beat the Hoos last month. The Eagles made four of their 17 attempts from deep but also made 17 of their 30 attempts inside the arc while turning it over just 10 times in the seven-point win at home. Virginia had a woeful shooting performance that night, going 3-for-16 from beyond the arc and 14-for-36 inside with10 turnovers of their own.

UVa will need to be more clinical with the basketball and knock down more shots if the Hoos want to exact revenge for their worst loss of the season to date.

BC was without two of its top players in the first meeting with UVa, but it didn’t ultimately cost the Eagles anything. Senior guard Derryk Thornton is the team’s leading scorer with 13.1 points per game and also leads the team in assists (3.6). He was unavailable in the January 7th meeting but has returned since then and comes to Charlottesville hot after a 22-point outburst against NC State on Sunday.

In his absence, freshman guard Jay Heath starred for the Eagles last month, scoring a game-high 17 points, making three of BC’s four made 3s in the win. Sophomore wing Jairus Hamilton was also in double figures with 10 points against the Hoos, doing all of his damage in the paint or at the line.

Forward Nik Popovic was also out for last month’s game but, like Thornton, has made it back on the lineup for a while. He scored 14 points and hauled in eight boards against NC State, and is currently third on the team in scoring with 10.5 points per game. Junior forward Steffon Mitchell took on a larger role in Popovic’s absence that night against UVa, scoring 10 points and grabbing six rebound with three blocks and two steals.

Virginia should see a healthier and more complete BC team tonight and it will be interesting to see if the Hoos can find the same success they did in the first meeting with Thornton and Popovic on the bench.