FSU basketball: Noles obliterate Clemson to avenge earlier loss

FSU basketball (9-2, 5-1 ACC) won their fourth consecutive ACC contest Saturday with an 80-61 destruction of the Clemson Tigers (9-4, 3-4 ACC).

It was the fourth consecutive win for the Noles after losing to Clemson at the end of December.

It might have been the most complete game we’ve seen from the Noles all season. They only allowed Clemson to make four field goals in the first half and held them to 17.9 percent from the floor to lead 42-24.

FSU shot 51.5 percent from the floor and made 7 of 17 three-pointers in the first half while being +5 in rebounds.

The second half saw the Noles pick right up where they left off with excellent ball movement and suffocating defense.

The Noles had six blocks in the game and forced Clemson to take contested shots while forcing several shot-clock violations.

Balsa Koprivica’s led the Noles with 13 points and 10 rebounds, and Sadaar Calhoun had a career-high 13 points off the bench.

Calhoun played lots of minutes with M.J. Walker exiting the game after getting hit in the head with an inadvertent elbow from teammate Tanor Ngom during a free-throw attempt. Scottie Barnes had seven points and seven assists.

The Noles led by as much as 38 points before Leonard Hamilton began to sub out the starters with under five minutes left in the game.

Parting Thoughts

FSU basketball could be the hottest team in the nation. They were shooting 53 percent from the floor and 44 percent from three-point range, with a 30 point lead, with five minutes left in the game.

They have some games coming up where they will be big favorites to win, and those games will tell us a lot about this team. Will they continue to roll, or will they play to their level of competition?

The Noles were unranked this week, but I expect them to be near the top 10 when rankings are released next week.