BOSTON (AP) – First came the No. 4 seed. That was bad enough.

Then Boston College learned that it would be playing its first-round NCAA tournament game in Cleveland instead of nearby Worcester. The Eagles will play Ivy League champion Pennsylvania on Thursday.

“I’m disappointed because we had it in our hands, being 20-0, and let it slip away,” forward Jared Dudley said Sunday night after the pairings were announced for the 65-team NCAA field. “But you can cry about it, or you can do something about it.”

The Eagles are looking at potential games against Alabama and Illinois – the top ranked team in the country – just to get to the final eight.

Boston College was heading for a top seed in the tournament while it climbed to the No. 3 spot in The Associated Press Top 25 – the highest ranking in school history. But BC went 4-4 in its last eight games, including a 78-72 loss to West Virginia in its first game in the Big East tournament.

Even so, the Eagles thought they had fallen no lower than a No. 3 seed. And, with the tournament committee promising to keep the first four seeds close to home, BC seemed like a lock for an easy trip to Worcester, about 45 miles west down the Massachusetts Turnpike.

The Eagles gathered in a campus dining hall with other students on Sunday to watch the televised selection show, sitting in front at a table with a white tablecloth. But when the No. 4 seed came up, they sat there stone-faced while the students booed.

And that was before they learned they won’t be playing in Worcester.

“I’m not disappointed,” coach Al Skinner said.

“That’s not home for us, it’s close to home,” he said, adding that playing in a nearby arena could have all the distractions of a home game with none of the advantages. “I really believe that’s the case. We’re comfortable on the road, and it’s an easy trip for us.”

Chief among the problems of playing nearby would be ticket requests from friends and family.

“From that standpoint, I think the committee did us a favor,” DeFilippo said.

But BC also has some new distractions to worry about.

Senior Jermaine Watson injured his left hand and cut his ear early Saturday morning when he jumped from a second-story window to escape gun-toting masked men who burst into his off-campus apartment. He did not practice Saturday or Sunday.

There were no arrests in the raid, which appeared to stem from a dispute during a party at Watson’s apartment. Watson would not comment on the fight.

“He probably won’t practice that much,” Dudley said. “But when the game comes, he’ll be ready to roll.”

DeFilippo left Sunday’s event with Watson and spoke to him outside the dining hall. DeFilippo said the school is investigating, but Skinner said Watson most likely will not face punishment by the team or school “because he’s the victim.”

“Jermaine’s a tough guy,” DeFilippo said. “He’s one of the toughest people, mentally, that I know.”

Police were called to Watson’s apartment in Boston’s Brighton neighborhood to investigate a disturbance. The was vacant but in disarray, police said; Watson and a friend were found hiding in nearby bushes, and they told police four to five masked men brandishing guns, knives and baseball bats entered the apartment.

“We’re investigating to find all the facts,” DeFilippo said, “and when I do, I’ll have a statement.”

Boston College was the only Massachusetts team to make the men’s tournament.

Holy Cross, which went 24-6, had a slim chance after losing in the Patriot League title game on Friday, but was left out. The Patriot League has never earned an at-large berth.

Holy Cross did make the NCAA women’s field, earning a No. 15 seed and a first-round matchup with Ohio State in College Park, Md.

The Boston College women, a seventh seed, will play Houston in the first round in Durham, N.C. A victory would pit the Eagles against the winner of Duke and Canisius.

AP-ES-03-13-05 2119EST