FSU Basketball continues hot start with win against UConn

FSU Basketball shook off a rough start against the Huskies to take a first half lead and not look back to get another quality win before an extended break.

With an over one week break looking them right in the face, the FSU basketball team knew they could finish the first nine games of the season in quite an impressive way as they took on the UConn Huskies this Saturday in a neutral site game in New Jersey.

Despite an opening to the game that saw the Seminoles not being able to buy a basket, the Noles woke up in a big way and held on to a double digit lead for a decent part of the second half before coasting to a 79-71 victory to move their record to 8-1 on the early season.

FSU basketball hit just one basket in the opening five minutes of the game before getting hot – thanks in part to impressive play by Terance Mann and David Nichols (who scored 13 of his 16 points in the first half) but wouldn’t take the lead for good until a dunk by Mfiondu Kabengele with just two minutes to go in the half as the Seminoles took a seven point lead into the locker room.

The Noles opened the second half on a 10-1 run – with Mann scoring nine of those points that included a reverse slam before later being a part of back to back dunks.

UConn would cut the lead to as little as seven points with just over two minutes to go, but the FSU basketball defense came to play at the end and the Seminoles hit just enough free throws to get the eight point victory.

Mann led the Seminoles with 20 points while Kabengele added 15 as FSU basketball shot nearly 46 percent from the field and over 35 percent from behind the three point line while the defense held the Huskies to under 38 percent from the field.

FSU basketball has now won three straight games since their only loss of the season – a six point defeat at the hands of defending champions Villanova over Thanksgiving weekend – as part of a resume that includes two ranked wins as well as two more wins over teams that played in the tournament last season – heck, even the loss doesn’t look that bad right now.

The Seminoles will have time off for finals before getting back on the court November 17th at home against Southeast Missouri State – part of four more non-conference games to start the season before ACC play begins on January 4th.