SALT LAKE CITY - Baldheaded Boston College got the first NCAA thriller out of the way Thursday, a double-overtime 88-76 victory that derailed scrappy Pacific and the Maraker Express.

Boston College's Craig Smith slam dunks against Pacific, in the first half of a NCAA first round basketball game in Salt Lake City, Utah, Thursday, March 16, 2006.(AP Photo/Steve C Wilson)

The final overtime was anticlimactic, but the fourth-seeded Eagles (27-7) sure made this one interesting for the first 45 minutes.

BC trailed by six early in the first overtime and needed a pair of free throws from Craig Smith, a 66 percent shooter, with 4.3 seconds left to send the game into the next extra period.

With 9 seconds left in regulation, Pacific's star, Christian Maraker, hit an open 3-pointer to tie the game at 65 — a shot the Pacific fans were cheering for even before it left his hands.

But BC held Maraker scoreless in the two overtimes, and the 13th-seeded Tigers (24-8) failed in their quest to advance to the second round for the third straight year.

Everyone on the BC team but Jared Dudley took the razor to their head before the game and now, the Eagles will take their game, and their new look, into the second round of the Minneapolis regional against either Nevada or Montana.

Smith led the Eagles with 25 points and 13 rebounds and Dudley had 23 points. Tyrese Rice opened the second overtime with an alley-oop pass to Sean Williams for a dunk, then followed with a 3-pointer — his only bucket of the game — to help Boston College start pulling away.

Pacific had a bunch of nice looks early in that overtime, but Maraker (30 points, nine rebounds) and Johnny Gray each had 3-pointers rim out. By the time the Big West champs scored, they were trailing by nine with 1:45 left — playing out the string in an otherwise taut, exciting game.

The Eagles were none too pleased about being sent on a 2,300-mile trek to Utah to play a game that started at 10:40 a.m. local time against a team that had knocked off Pitt and Providence in the opening round of the last two tournaments.

And for a minute, it looked like the runners-up in last weekend's Atlantic Coast Conference tourney were headed for a long trip home.

Mike Webb opened the first overtime with a pair of 3-pointers to put Pacific ahead 71-65. BC pulled within two, but Gray (16 points) answered with another 3 to make it 74-69. But Dudley made a 3 to pull it within two and after Michael White barely grazed the rim on Pacific's next possession, the Eagles worked it to Smith, who drew contact inside against Maraker and went to the line for the tying free throws.

As the second overtime wore down and it became clear this would be Maraker's last college game, the small Pacific fan base got its point across — yelling "overrated" to the BC players who had to work hard against the team from Stockton, Calif.

Dudley just looked over and laughed, though the point had been made. The Eagles failed to take control of the game until the very end against a team that was physically outmatched.