Eagles create a buzz

About 13 seconds remained in Boston College's 66-64 victory over Georgia Tech last night at Conte Forum when the gold-clad students seated behind the Eagles' basket began chanting, ''We want Duke!" in anticipation of Wednesday night's Atlantic Coast Conference home showdown with the second-ranked Blue Devils.

But the No. 20 Eagles weren't hearing any of it.

''I wasn't even paying attention to that," said senior forward Craig Smith, who led the Eagles (16-4, 4-3) with 25 points and 13 rebounds, his eighth double-double of the season and 37th of his career. ''I didn't hear it at all."

BC, after all, still had to take care of business against the Yellow Jackets, who were looking to snap a four-game losing streak by reprising the effort they had in a 60-58 victory over the Eagles Jan. 8 in Atlanta.

''We want to make our statement," said Smith, who made one himself by passing Danya Abrams for fourth place on BC's all-time scoring list (with 2,076 points) after hitting 8 of 16 shots from the field and all nine attempts from the line. He tallied 23 of BC's final 43 points.

''We had a rough start," Smith said of BC's 0-3 start in the ACC, ''but now we have a sense of indentity and we're playing very hard on the defensive end, and we're just collecting 'Ws."

Smith and junior forward Sean Marshall (14 points, 6 rebounds, 1 monster dunk in the first half) helped the Eagles avenge their earlier loss. The Yellow Jackets (9-9, 2-5) got a team-high 18 points from Ra'Sean Dickey.

Both teams engaged in a rock fight early on, shooting a combined 0 for 10 from the field with eight turnovers before Lewis Clinch hit the first field goal with 15:24 left in the half to give the Jackets a 2-1 lead.

Marshall, however, gave the Eagles a huge boost with a 7-point tear that erased BC's 15-14 deficit. It was reminiscent of his surge against North Carolina Wednesday, when he scored 9 points in one first-half stretch to help the Eagles build a comfortable halftime lead in an 81-74 victory.

''I went through a four-game stretch of games where I was struggling and my confidence was low," said Marshall, who converted 5 of 13 shots from the field. ''I really wasn't bringing what I was at the beginning of the season and so I just tried to put it all behind me, and just try to be mature about it, and keep my energy. Even if I wasn't making my shots, I was still trying to do the little things."

Marshall's strong move to the basket gave BC a 16-15 lead, then he followed that by hauling in a fast-break lob from Louis Hinnant for another transition basket, and highlighted the run when he hauled in a defensive board, dribbled the length of the court, and threw down a monster foul-inducing dunk with 4:19 to go.

''I figured that if I just went to the basket strong I'd either get a foul or just finish a layup," Marshall said. ''But once I saw [Tech's Paco Diaw] keep backpedaling, I just figured I'd try to dunk it."

And what a dunk it was. ''I have no words at all," Smith marveled. ''My mouth was all open, drool hanging out, it was exciting. It was a big dunk and got us on a little bit of a run."

While it helped the Eagles take a 30-24 lead at halftime, Smith took over in the second half, scoring BC's first 9 points for a 39-30 lead.

''Craig was just tremendous," said BC coach Al Skinner. ''The fact of the matter is, we think he's obviously trying to define himself in this league. He's really making a presence and he's taken some responsibility for the success of this team and he's been bringing it every night."

The Eagles seemed to put it away when Jared Dudley (9 points, 4 rebounds) hit the second of two foul shots to give BC a 44-32 lead with 13:57 to go. But the Yellow Jackets rallied to within 46-45 after Clinch (16 points) buried back-to-back 3-pointers.

Smith, however, answered with a pair of thunderous dunks off transition feeds from Hinnant and Tyrese Rice to help BC take a 50-45 lead. Theodis Tarver cut it to 50-49 with his offensive putback, but Rice hit a pair of foul shots to keep Tech at bay. BC hit 26 of 32 foul shots overall, and connected on 14 of 16 in the final 6:05.

''Unfortunately we've probably paid the price for not really appreciating how important free throws are," said Skinner, whose team shot just 49 percent from the line (26 of 53) in their three conference losses. ''We're starting to respect that a little bit more and guys are meeting the challenge by going to the line and taking the responsibility to make their free throws."

It enabled the Eagles to clinch their fourth consecutive conference victory, and fifth straight win overall, and keep their momentum heading into a huge game against Duke.

''We're in a good position right now, but we know we have a tough team in Duke on Wednesday," Marshall said.