FSU Basketball Avoids Near Disaster In Greensboro

The 62nd annual ACC Tournament in Greensboro saw Florida State’s head coach Leonard Hamilton match J.K. Kennedy’s record as FSU’s all-time winningest coach. It also saw a lot of sloppy late game basketball by the ‘Noles who nearly allowed the Clemson Tigers to pull off one of the most improbable comebacks in college basketball.

In the first half both teams would go on their respective scoring runs. This included a 10-0 run by FSU that put the ‘Noles up by a score of 25-16 with 6:10 to go in the first quarter. This would be followed by a Clemson run that saw the Tigers score eight points to Florida State’s two. The teams would swap buckets after this, but by halftime the ‘Noles would enjoy the seven-point lead over the Tigers.

With a half of basketball in the books FSU’s seven-point lead saw the ‘Noles up by a score of 33-26. During the break Florida State edged Clemson in the rebound margin with 17 rebounds to Clemson’s 16. Of those 17 FSU rebounds, six were offensive and 11 were defensive. The Tiger’s matched FSU’s six offensive rebounds but saw the defense come up with just one less defensively.

The ‘Noles average nearly five blocks per game. Against Clemson in Greensboro, FSU found itself with five blocks in the first half alone. This elevated number of blocks in one half of play contributed to the ‘Noles holding Clemson to just 38% shooting during the first twenty minutes of action.

Early on in the second half FSU would work on building on its lead. At the 15:07 mark the ‘Noles enjoyed an 11-point lead as the score sat at 44-33. This equated to trouble for a Clemson team that has shown little ability to perform efficiently when down by double digits in the second half this season.

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At the 14:22 mark Clemson center Landry Nnoko would receive a flagrant one after putting an elbow into the face of FSU center Boris Bojanovsky. This flagrant forced the star center to sit for some minutes. Promptly, the ‘Noles compiled a 15-point lead with just over 12 minutes to go in the game.

A flurry of shots from downtown paid dividends for FSU through the first 10 minutes of the second half. Florida State made just two three-point shots through the first half. This number was doubled almost immediately in the second as the ‘Noles enjoyed seeing four shots from downtown go through the net in just minutes of action.

With 6:28 remaining in the ballgame Clemson’s Landry Nnoko would foul out following a blocking call. This didn’t stop the Tigers from chipping away at the lead as the Tigers would capitalize off of late FSU turnovers.

It wouldn’t be enough though as Florida State would somehow squeak by bracing to its second half lead behind a 30–point performance from Xavier Rathan-Mayes. XRM’s 30 points led all scorers for both teams and set a new FSU record for most points scored by a single Florida State player in any ACC tournament game. The previous high was 28 points.

The game would conclude with a scare brought on in large part by a plethora of FSU mistakes. The ‘Noles would cough up five turnovers in a matter of one minute and forty-two seconds. The Tigers would capitalize off these mistakes and make a 12-2 run in just a matter of 36 seconds. It wouldn’t be enough as Florida State held on for the 76-73 victory.

FSU advances and will play UVA at noon on Thursday, March 12th. The ‘Noles dropped a 51-41 decision to the Cavaliers in the teams’ most recent meeting.