NEWTON, Mass. -- So, you ask, how does a 7-16 team sitting at the bottom of its league standings stun a 16-6 team sitting on top of that same league’s standings?

Simple: hit 3-pointers and limit both your mistakes and your opponent’s shots.

Boston College (8-16, 3-7 ACC) did those three things on Wednesday night, and the result was a surprising 64-60 win over No. 17 Florida State (16-7, 7-2).

“If we’re gonna win, we’ve gotta be great with the basketball,” BC coach Steve Donahue said. “That’s the bottom line. We recruit that way. We’re never gonna have the guys who maybe make up for it on tip-dunks or get in passing lanes and make spectacular plays with their length.

“So if we’re gonna play this way, you’ve gotta be great with the basketball. That’s what you saw tonight.”

The Eagles hit 10 3s (shooting 45.5 percent), while the Noles hit only five (25 percent). The Eagles had just 10 turnovers to the Noles’ 14, and enjoyed a 15-9 edge in points off of turnovers. While Florida State outshot (53-48) and outrebounded (34-27) BC, the Noles finished with just two more made field goals and three fewer free throws (FSU was 21-of-53 FG, 13-of-16 FT; BC was 19-of-48 FG, 16-of-23 FT).

Florida State owns a length advantage over BC, but corralled only eight offensive rebounds (on 32 missed field goals) -- which was key for BC.

“If we do that, we’re gonna win a lot of games,” Donahue said of his team's defensive rebounding.

It also helps when you can make five straight 3s, as the Eagles did during a 23-3 run to erase a 13-point Noles lead midway through the first half.

“It got my whole team going and it let us be able to make plays,” said Jordan Daniels, who was responsible for two of those 3s, “because after that [the Seminoles] had something to focus on defensively and it let other guys open up.”

Daniels led all scorers with 21 points, a career high for the 5-foot-8, 153-pound point guard, and nabbed three of the Eagles’ eight steals.

“Oh we talked about it a lot in the locker room,” Daniels said, referring to the assist-to-turnover battle. “Coach told us if we got them to turn the ball over a couple times, that we would come out victorious.”

Growing up fast

They always knew there would be growing pains. BC has nine freshmen on its roster for 2011-12, many of whom have been forced to be key players from day one because there simply is no other option.

As expected, the results have varied. The Eagles have spurts of efficient, exciting play .... and extended stretches of wretched execution and head-scratching decision-making.

But one thing’s for sure: The experience seems to be paying immediate dividends.

“Think about the minutes that these kids have played already in college basketball,” Donahue said. “Usually by the time you’ve played that many minutes you’re a sophomore or a junior maybe. Use that. That’s your experience. That’s why you’re able to win tonight.”

In the locker room after the upset win over Florida State on Wednesday, Donahue told his team that they’re no longer freshmen. They’ve played 24 games, including 10 in the ACC, and a ton of minutes. They’ve been blown out. They’ve lost close, hard-fought games. They’ve also won a few games.

And they’ve tried to learn from them all.

Wednesday night’s win -- the first by BC over a ranked team in three years, since a 72-67 win over, coincidentally, No. 23 FSU on Feb. 24, 2009 -- means more because of what they’ve gone through to get to this point.

“It is huge,” Donahue said. “Obviously I don’t put a great emphasis on wins and losses with this group, and I really don’t ever. If they’re gonna do their best and they’re working their tails off, I’m really satisfied. I’ve been really happy over the last two weeks, I have.”

BC had been on a six-game losing streak prior to the win Wednesday.

“Now, that being said, you want the win,” Donahue said. “This is what we’re here for. We’re building this program to be a championship program, I want those guys to be rewarded for their hard work. I think this is huge for them. For them to run into the students and have fun, with all the stuff we’ve been through it makes all the work worthwhile.”

“I felt really confident,” Daniels said about being up late against the Seminoles, after the Eagles had lost several close games late recently. “Being able to pull it out in the end like that, it really measures our growth. We’ve come a long way throughout this whole season.”

Unexpected contributions

When Donahue was told in the postgame news conference that BC got outscored 19-0 in bench points, he seemed genuinely surprised.

“We were outscored 19-nothing?” he repeated with a laugh, looking down at the stat sheet in front of him. “That’s amazing, because I thought the guys off the bench played terrific. That’s what’s funny, and that’s what a team’s about.

“John Cain Carney I thought gave us great minutes. I thought John Cahill gave us great minutes. Deirunas [Visockas] I thought was really relaxed and he gets three assists, I thought he played terrific. It’s funny, it’s not always the scoring that we’re worried about off the bench. What we’re worried about is making an impact, and I thought all those guys did.”

Cain Carney finished with two rebounds and an assist in nine minutes, Visockas was 0-for-2 from the field with one rebound, three assists and two turnovers in 11 minutes and Cahill had two rebounds and two steals in 13 minutes.

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