FSU basketball: Noles escape Notre Dame for 10th straight win

FSU basketball made it closer than it should have been, but the Noles have now won 10 straight games after their win over Notre Dame.

No. 5 FSU basketball (17-2, 7-1 ACC) used a three-point barrage and sharp shooting from the free throw to edge Notre Dame (11-8, 2-6 ACC) 85-84.

I wrote Saturday I thought the game would be closer than the eight point spread. It didn’t look that way for much of the game as the Noles led 47-37 at halftime.

In fact, the Noles led by as many as 11 points with 5:07 remaining in the game, but Notre Dame would take advantage of the Noles going cold from the floor.

FSU would only score five points in those last five minutes with all of them coming from the free throw line.

The free throw line was one of the major storylines in the game. Notre Dame was 22 of 27 and FSU was 13 of 14. The margin of victory was one point so that speaks to how important FSU making those free throws were.

The other major factor was three-point shooting as the Noles shot a blistering 66.7 percent from beyond the arc. They were led by Wyatt Wilkes who had 19 points and made five of six from three-point range.

Raiquan Gray and Trent Forrest had 13 points with Devin Vassell chipping in with 11 points respectively.

It was a strong performance for the Noles considering they hadn’t been in action since their overtime win over Miami last week.

They were able to force Notre Dame into five more turnovers than their season average, and won the battle of the boards against a good rebounding team.

However, FSU did have way too many turnovers and allowed Notre Dame to make 10 three-point shots which kept them within striking distance.

All in all, a win is a win and the Noles keep rolling through conference play a very important game coming up next.

The Noles will be back in action Tuesday night when they travel to take on Virginia who they defeated 54-50 nearly two weeks ago.