MILWAUKEE — The Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets are headed to the Sweet 16 thanks to a 57-54 victory over the Boston College Eagles. Boston College guard Jermaine Watson’s three point try at the buzzer was off target, giving the Yellow Jackets a hard-fought win.

“We know nobody wants to go home in the tournament,” Georgia Tech guard Jarrett Jack said. “We threw a lot at them, and we had to withstand what they were going to throw back at us. They came back real hard … we came back and kept our composure and pulled out the W.”

Georgia Tech stormed out of the gates to grab an 11-2 advantage behind the play of juniors B.J. Elder and Anthony McHenry. Elder opened the game with a three-pointer and a midrange pull-up jumper, and McHenry followed with six consecutive points of his own.

A dunk and a lay-up from Isma’il Muhammad on back-to-back possessions gave the Yellow Jackets a 20-9 advantage seven minutes into action, but the Eagles answered back with 9-2 run to draw within two at 22-20.

Moments later, a lay-in by freshman forward Sean Marshall gave Boston College its first lead of the game at 25-24 with 7:02 to play in the first half. BC regained the lead on 7-foot forward Nate Doornekamp’s second three-pointer of the game at the 4:33 mark, but Tech closed the half on a 9-4 run to take a 35-31 lead into the locker room.

Elder finished the first 20 minutes of play with 15 points on 6-9 shooting.

Tech opened the second stanza in the same way as the first, outscoring Boston College 9-2 in the half’s first four minutes. Marvin Lewis led the initial charge for the Yellow Jackets, scoring on an acrobatic lay-up, then sinking a three. McHenry capped the charge with a lay-in and a dunk, making the score 46-37 with 13:13 left to play.

The Yellow Jackets went cold for the next four minutes, however, and the Eagles climbed back into the contest. Four consecutive free throws from Louis Hinnant followed by one from Jared Dudley cut the margin to 46-42. Tech’s Clarence Moore pushed the lead back to eight after a steal and breakaway dunk, but the Yellow Jackets went cold again, making just two field goals in the game’s final eight minutes.

Elder ended a 6-0 Boston College run with a three at the six-minute mark, but the Eagles came right back. Craig Smith, a first team All-Big East selection, notched his only points of the game on a turnaround jumper, cutting the Yellow Jackets’ lead to 53-50 with 5:15 left on the clock. Dudley tied the score with a three-point field goal, and Watson gave the Eagles the lead by sinking one of two free throws with one minute remaining.

“There was no question in my mind that we were going to be put in position to win the game,” Boston College head coach Al Skinner said. “We started fighting back, getting a little closer, and there was no question we couldn’t win the game.”

Tech’s Jarrett Jack saved the Yellow Jackets by taking over the game’s final minute. He tied and untied the game with a pair of free throws, then dashed BC’s hopes of reclaiming the lead with a steal and slam dunk that put Tech up by three with 5.5 seconds to play.

“I kind of felt (Boston College’s) Steve Hailey drive to the basket, Luke (Schenscher) stepped over and kind of made it difficult for him to shoot it, and tried to throw it back to Luke’s man,” Jack said. “I just stepped over and stole the pass.”

With a chance to tie, Boston College nearly threw away the in-bounds pass before Watson dribbled up the left wing and missed a pull-up, leaning three that crawled off the back of the rim and sent Georgia Tech to St. Louis and the Sweet 16.

“I’m sure it wasn’t the prettiest game to watch,” Georgia Tech head coach Paul Hewitt said. “We had two teams out there that really went after each other and battle and they took away some of the things that they like to do. It was more like an old-fashioned Big East game, that’s what it looked like out there.”

Elder led all scorers with 18 points while Jack added eight points, six rebounds and six assists. McHenry finished with 10 points and four steals.

The Eagles were paced by Dudley’s 13 points. Twenty-two team turnovers proved to be Boston College’s undoing.

“Without question, the difference in the game for us was the number of turnovers,” Skinner said. “I’ve got to give credit to Georgia Tech for playing aggressive defense, and they came up with the ball a lot of times, but other times, we were careless. Clearly, the number of turnovers was the difference in the game today.”

Tech advances to face upstart Nevada, who is fresh off wins over Michigan State and Gonzaga.

“It makes us feel real good,” Elder said of the win, “It gives us a lot of confidence to know that we can go in and win a tough one considering we don’t feel like we have played our best basketball yet. We’re