NEWTON, Mass. -- He was, by far, the smallest player on the floor. Yet his performance stood out above all the rest.

Jordan Daniels is just 5-foot-8, 153 pounds. The Fontana, Calif., native came into Boston College’s game against Florida State with light averages, as well. Just 5.8 points, 1.6 rebounds and 2.3 assists in 22.6 minutes per game.

Daniels is one of nine freshmen on the 2011-12 roster for BC, which was 7-16 entering Wednesday night’s game against 16-6 FSU. The point guard proved he’s an important part of what Steve Donahue’s building with a sparkling performance in the Eagles’ 64-60 upset of the Seminoles.

“Jordan had so much to do with that,” Donahue said.

The coach was referring specifically to Daniels’ role in keeping the offense moving forward against the staunch FSU defense, but he could’ve been talking about the whole game, too.

Daniels scored the team’s first four points with a free throw and a catch-and-shoot 3-pointer. And after Michael Snaer led FSU out to a 23-10 lead with 9:37 to go in the first half, it was Daniels who began to bring the Eagles back.

He hit a floater in the lane off a Dennis Clifford bounce pass to cut the deficit to 11. He set Matt Humphrey up for a 3 to cut it to five. The ball landed in his hands, and he put it through the net from behind the arc to cut it to 4.

Then he hit another 3, this one from farther away. And found Lonnie Jackson for yet another 3, to give BC a lead.

“Jordan’s ability to just drive it and find somebody? I thought that was key,” Donahue said. “We didn’t have to worry about how we were gonna get the ball from A to B, because Jordan was gonna be able to create something off the dribble. I thought that was the key to the whole game, to be honest with you.

“I thought if we couldn’t get someone to go by them north and south, we were gonna have a hard time. I thought Jordan did a great job, and then hence everybody kinda played off that. We were able to drive and made good decisions on when to attack and when not to.”

Daniels finished 7-for-13 from the floor, including 4-for-7 from 3 and 3-for-6 from the foul line, with a career-high 21 points and 5 assists, to go with 3 rebounds and 3 steals.

Afterward, the point guard said the win showed how much the Eagles have matured as a team. He didn’t talk about himself, except to say that his 3-point barrage helped to get his teammates going because it gave the defense something else to worry about.

“That was very exciting,” Daniels said of being up on FSU late and hanging on for the upset. “We’ve been playing basketball all our lives, so those are the moments we live for.”

The Eagles probably wouldn’t have gotten it at all, if not for the smallest guy on the floor. (The next smallest player to hit the Conte Forum court on Wednesday was Florida State’s Jeff Peterson, who at 6-foot, 195 pounds has four inches and 42 pounds on Daniels.)

Daniels did a little bit of everything against the Noles, including running an effective pick-and-roll offense.

“When we recruited him I thought he was terrific at it,” Donahue said of the pick-and-roll. “I think he got overwhelmed early on with the size and the athleticism. I think he’s now starting to figure out how much he can get away with, how much he can’t.”

Then Donahue said something surprising.

“But his size actually plays an advantage against a team like that, who has 6-5 guards and switching out with 6-8 guys,” Donahue said. “He goes by. Tonight we kept telling him, ‘You gotta keep doing it. You gotta attack. Make someone play you. Put two guys, now we’re four-on-three somewhere.’ And he did that most of the night.”

And when Daniels’ night was over, BC went home a winner over a ranked team for the first time in three years. No small feat.

Jack McCluskey is an editor for ESPN.com and a frequent contributor to ESPNBoston.com. Follow him on Twitter @jack_mccluskey.