Boston College

Johnathan Coleman had this dream of one day playing big-time college football. There was one gaping problem with that dream: The reality was that Coleman had never played high-school football until this season. That didn't stop Boston College, an Atlantic Coast Conference powerhouse, from reaching out to the 6-4, 210-pound Radnor High senior receiver and offering him a full football scholarship next fall. Coleman committed to BC coach Jeff Jagodzinski yesterday, before taking the train back home to Radnor last night.

Marissa Coleman scored 32 points, fellow senior Kristi Toliver added 27, and No. 5 Maryland (24-4, 11-2) beat Boston College, 86-74, last night in College Park, Md., in the Terrapins' final regular-season home game. Mickel Picco led Boston College (18-10, 6-7) with 18. Yale 61, Penn 51 - Erin Power had a career-high 12 points and Caitlin Slover grabbed a career-best 10 rebounds but the Quakers (6-18, 3-7 Ivy) fell to the Bulldogs (11-14, 4-7) at the Lee Amphitheater in New Haven, Conn.

This is a situation that Frank "Happy" Dobbs finds disconcerting. On Sunday, Christine O'Brien, the 41-year-old wife of Boston College coach Jim O'Brien, died of a heart attack. The death was particularly shocking because Christine O'Brien, a good friend to all the team's players and coaches, apparently had made a complete recovery from open heart surgery last year. The funeral will be held today, and O'Brien is not expected to be on the bench tonight when Boston College plays Villanova in the preliminary Big East Conference tournament game at 7 o'clock at Madison Square Garden.

While Boston College gained some cushion on third-place LSU in the Bowl Championship Series standings and Ohio State held firm to first place, Arizona State moved into position to make a big stretch run. The unbeaten Sun Devils raised their BCS average to .849 after beating California Saturday, 31-20. Arizona State, with its most challenging games still to play, might not need teams ahead of it to lose to move up the standings. The Sun Devils play at Oregon, which is fifth in the BCS standings, on Saturday, then finish with games against USC, UCLA and Arizona.

Lee Suggs and Cardinal O'Hara graduate Kevin Jones both ran for well more than 100 yards as Virginia Tech escaped a visit to Boston College with a 28-23 victory last night. The fourth-ranked Hokies (6-0 overall, 1-0 Big East) survived a dogfight with the Eagles (3-3, 0-3), losing a 14-0 lead, taking a 21-14 lead, and then seeing Boston College cut that lead to 21-17 early in the fourth quarter. A 27-yard touchdown run by Suggs opened up a 28-17 lead, but Boston College responded with a 78-yard touchdown drive capped by a 1-yard run by quarterback Brian St. Pierre in the final minute.

Syracuse guard Dwayne "Pearl" Washington lit up Madison Square Garden as a freshman three years ago in the Big East Tournament. He showed again yesterday why he owns this town. The exciting 6-2 junior, a schoolboy legend at Boys and Girls High in Brooklyn, had 27 points and seven assists as the Orange (24-4) blew by Boston College, 102-79, in the Big East Conference Tournament opener. Washington shot 10-for-21 and fueled a devastating fastbreak that helped the Orangemen produce a tournament single-game scoring record.

Four Big East Conference football schools filed a second lawsuit yesterday over the Atlantic Coast Conference expansion, adding Boston College, its athletic director and four ACC officers to the list of defendants. Connecticut, Pittsburgh, West Virginia and Rutgers allege in the lawsuit that the ACC and Boston College conspired to weaken the Big East and ultimately reap a larger share of television broadcast revenue. Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal filed an 82-page complaint on behalf of the four schools in Vernon Superior Court.

Boston College didn't really need the considerable passing skills of quarterback Glenn Foley yesterday. Foley, the 6-foot-2 sophomore from Cherry Hill, threw for three touchdowns in a solid performance at sparsely populated Veterans Stadium. But it was the Eagles' powerful running game that was mostly responsible for a 33-13 thrashing of Temple. Junior tailback Chuckie Dukes, who didn't start, pounded out 136 yards on 23 carries. Darnell Campbell, the starter, rushed for 68 more.

The first shocking noise heard at halftime at the Hartford Civic Center was booing. It was aimed at the Connecticut Huskies as they left the court down 10 points to No. 9 Boston College. Only Connecticut players and coaches heard the next shock to the ears, as coach Jim Calhoun let his team know what he thought of the way they ended the opening 20 minutes last night. Combined, the boos and the verbal challenge led to an about face and an 82-71 victory for the Huskies, snapping a six-game winning streak by the Eagles (18-3, 9-2 Big East)

Temple missed three field goals. Two were by sophomore Zane Michalski in the second quarter, into the wind from 29 and 40 yards away. Another, a 44- yarder with the wind by true freshman Dave Nicholl with two seconds left, fell just short and slightly to the right. Boston College made its only three-point attempt, a 47-yarder by senior Dan McGuire with the wind late in the third period. And the Eagles won, 10-9, at Veterans Stadium Saturday. It was only the second time in 30 Big East Conference games that Temple held a team to under 24 points.