After the first eight minutes of the game last night at Roberts Center, the 500 spectators in attendance maintained only a statistical interest in the proceedings. The Boston College basketball team was gunning for its third straight 100-point game, and for most of the contest the thought uppermost in nearly everybody's mind was: Would they make it?

They did not, although they tried mightily, and had to settle for an 88-51 triumph, with which the Eagles and their fanational following were far from overjoyed. That's the trouble with scoring 100 points so early in the season: unless you hit 100 in every subsequent game, you're a bunch of bums.

There were some secondary questions in the minds of the fans. One was: How many different and flashy ways could the B.C. five invent to score a basket? Another was: Would Harvard even reach the 50 mark?

The Eagles spread the good cheer around, with five men breaking into double figures. Jim Hooley led the onslaught with 18 points, followed by Frank Quinn with 17, Bill Donovan and Jerry Power with 16, and Gerry Ward with 14.

And B.C. scored in so many entrancing ways. Donovan, with a two-hand set, and occasionally, with one of the few two-hand jump shots around, struck from the outside. Hooley and the mountainous Quinn dominated the boards. Power, Hooley, and Donovan engineered the Eagles' fast break.

Late in the game, when the Eagles had exhausted all the conventional ways of scoring. Power and Chuck Chevalier, who tallied only two points but certainly earned his keep, took over. Power fed Quinn with a nifty behind the back pass to put B.C. over 50.

Then Chevalier drew the loudest cheer of the night for a driving layup during which he passed the ball behind his back twice. Later, he huried an overhand pass through a cluster of people under the basket to set up an easy two points for Ward.

The Eagles were right on target, with their 75th point coming at 5:07, but they bogged down in the final minutes and fell 12 points short of the magic 100 mark.

Meanwhile, the Crimson, which had expected to have trouble with the B.C. offense, could do nothing with the unpublicised Eagle defense. The fans often hooted at the varsity for freesing the ball and keeping their beross from reaching 100, little knowing that the Crimson was hitting B.C. with both barrels.

A foul shot by Gary Borchard made the score 15 to 11 after eight minutes, but the varsity never got so close again. When Denny Lynch sank two free throws with less than two minutes left for the Crimson's 49th and 50th points, the spectators gave him a big cheer.

Lynch led the Crimson with 12 points, followed by Bob Bowditch with 11, and Borchard with 10.

The victory brought B.C.'s season slate to 5-0, while the Crimson's record sagged to 3-2. A loss to B.C., one of New England's very best teams, is not necessarily humiliating.