FSU Basketball comes back for huge ACC win over ranked Louisville

FSU basketball got their fifth straight win of the season with a second half comeback and overtime free throws to beat the Cardinals.

Entering the second half of the ACC schedule, the FSU basketball team knew that they not only needed to win the games against teams they are supposed to beat, but also pick off a few ranked foes to improve their potential seeding in the upcoming NCAA tournament.

It took extra time on Saturday inside the Tucker Center, but head coach Leonard Hamilton’s team overcome a rough start and second half deficit – led by 22 points from Mfiondu Kabengele and 20 from Terance Mann – as the No. 22 ranked Seminoles pulled off the 80-75 upset win over No. 16 ranked Louisville.

Things really couldn’t have started off worse for FSU basketball as the Seminoles hit just one of their first 11 shots before going on a 12-0 run to take the lead – a lead that would be short lived as the Cardinals would fight back and finish the half on a 14-2 run to go into the locker room with a six point lead.

Louisville would hold onto the lead for much of the second half, including leading by seven with less than five minutes to go, before the Seminoles fought back and got a slam dunk from Kabengele that was followed by a steal and basket from M.J. Walker that tied the game.

A last second effort by Phil Cofer came up just short and we went to extra basketball – where the Noles scored the first six points off of free throws and added a tip in from Trent Forrest and were able to hold off a fierce comeback attempt by the Cardinals to give the Seminoles their fifth straight win and their third win of the season over a ranked team.

That stat is huge considering FSU basketball had a .500 record over teams that were ranked when they played entering the game (granted the two losses were to Virginia and Duke, likely top seeded tournament teams) and moves the Seminoles to 18-5 on the season and 6-4 in the ACC – and more importantly, now just one game out of fifth place in the standings.

The Noles head back on the court Wednesday night when they take on Wake Forest inside the Tucker Center before traveling to play Georgia Tech on Saturday – two teams currently sitting among the bottom six in the conference standings.