BOSTON (AP) Boston College turned up the speed and handled the pressure of their season-opening conference test with some tough defense.
Derryck Thornton scored a career-high 23 points and Nik Popovic had 19 to lead BC to a 77-70 victory over Wake Forest Wednesday night in the season opener for both schools.
Jay Heath, a 6-foot-3 freshman guard, added 18 points, five rebounds and four assists for the Eagles.
''We talked about it all preseason that we've got to create offense from defense,'' BC coach Jim Christian said. ''I think in the first half we did a good job with that.''
The Eagles turned 17 Wake Forest turnovers to an 18-2 advantage in points-off-turnovers.
''They understand that this is a very, very good league and every night is very competitive,'' Christian said. ''They fully got it that this (was) going to be an important game just to determine who we are.''
Brandon Childress had 24 points, and Isaiah Mucius 18 for the Demon Deacons. Wake Forest shot just 32.4% in the first half, missing 23 of 34 attempts from the floor.
But it was the turnovers that hurt the Demon Deacons most.
''They put us in some tough situations as far as taking care of the basketball,'' Wake Forest coach Danny Manning said. ''The points that they were able to score off our turnovers was a huge difference for us. We also have to do a better job on transition defense.''
Committed to running the floor on nearly every opportunity, combined with that tough man-to-man defense, helped BC open a 42-27 lead at halftime.
The Eagles went on a 20-3 run during a 6:47 stretch of the opening half to make it 27-12. Popovic, Jared Hamilton and CJ Felder each nailed a 3 during the spree.
After Wake Forest sliced its deficit to eight late in the half, Heath sparked a quick 10-0 spurt, scoring eight of his points during the spree.
Wake Forest, opening a season with its first true road game since 1993, cut it to six with just under two minutes to play, but BC held on.
UP NEXT
Wake Forest: Hosts Columbia on Sunday.
Boston College: At South Florida on Sunday.