NC State vs Boston College Final Score Prediction for Saturday, Feb. 24

The North Carolina State Wolfpack will look to snap their two-game home losing streak on Saturday afternoon against the Boston College Eagles.

It’s the second time this season that these two conference squads will square off against each other. The Wolfpack defeated the Eagles, 84-78, in Chestnut Hill, MA, on Dec. 2. DJ Horne was one of four NC State starters in double figures, scoring a game-high 21 points. He also had five rebounds and dished out five assists.

Meanwhile, Boston College hasn’t had the best of luck on the road recently, losing back-to-back contests to Duke Blue Devils and Florida State Seminoles. The Eagles or Wolfpack aren’t in the picture for the NCAA tournament, so they must have a strong finish to the regular season and hope to make some noise in the ACC tourney. 

NC State vs Boston College Prediction & Preview

The Wolfpack have struggled at home lately, losing to Pittsburgh and Syracuse by a combined seven points. However, NC State has been an overall good team at home this year (11-4) and playing slightly above average in conference play (8-7).

On the other end of the spectrum, Boston College hasn’t played well in conference play (6-9), which has them sitting in 11th in the ACC. The Eagles are 4-5 on the road this season, with two ACC wins over Georgia Tech and Notre Dame.

North Carolina St. hopes to sweep the two-game season series on Saturday and try to move up in the ACC standings, as there are three other teams with an 8-7 record. The Wolfpack has four players scoring at least 11 points per game. 

But they aren’t a great three-point shooting team, as they ranked 10th in the conference (33.7%), which is excellent news for the Eagles’ perimeter defense. Boston College has struggled to defend the three-point line this season (35.7%). 

When these two teams played each other in Chestnut Hill, the Eagles couldn’t make a shot from deep (6-of-21 3PT) or the free-throw line (14-26 for 53.8%). North Carolina St. shot 44.4% from beyond the arc and 85.7% from the charity stripe (18-21), which helped them get the road win.

We should expect a lot of scoring in this matchup as both teams are ranked top-10 in scoring and give up 70-plus points on the other end. The Wolfpack must watch out for 7-footer Quinten Post, who leads the team with 16.3 points and 7.7 rebounds per game. Post also shoots 44.3% from deep on 3.2 attempts per game, which isn’t bad for the big man.

Nonetheless, I’m going to side with the Wolfpack at home in what should be another close game as they try to get themselves on the bubble ahead of March.

My final score prediction: North Carolina State 86 – Boston College 80