Boston College will have to deal with one of the top scorers in the country when it faces visiting Stanford in an Atlantic Coast Conference matchup on Wednesday night in Chestnut Hill, Mass.
Stanford’s Ebuka Okorie enters averaging 22.4 points, seventh in the nation as of Tuesday night. The freshman guard tossed in 40 points when Stanford (15-9, 4-7 ACC) ended a five-game losing streak by beating Georgia Tech 95-72 at home on Saturday.
“Good win for our program,” Stanford coach Kyle Smith said. “We needed to have some success. (Okorie) was forcing it in the right way. Putting pressure on the defense, making plays.”
Okorie has scored at least 30 points in five games this season. His 40-point performance was the first by a Stanford player since Casey Jacobsen scored 41 against Oregon in 2002.
“The shots were falling and my teammates were finding me,” Okorie said. “It’s cool to see my hard work paying off.”
Boston College (9-14, 2-8) will be looking to end a four-game losing streak. Eight of the team’s nine victories have come at home.
“We haven’t been victorious in as many close games as we want to be, but got another game coming up so you got to keep practicing, keep chopping,” Boston College coach Earl Grant said. “Gotta keep believing and find a way to run through the finish line at the highest level you can with the hopes of putting yourself in position to still be playing in March. So that’s where we are and that’s what we’re gonna continue to do.”
The Eagles are averaging 67.3 points per game, which ranks last in the 18-team conference. Fred Payne (15.0) and Donald Hand Jr. (14.3) are the team’s leading scorers. Hand has scored 20 points or more in five games this season.
Stanford has made at least 10 3-point field goals in three of its last four games.
–Field Level Media
