Florida State gave a valiant effort, but a lack of composure and fatigue late in the second half was enough for the Florida Gators to pull away for a 78-76 win. It was a 15-2 run by the Gators that started at the 10:30 mark with the game tied at 57-57.
Florida made back-to-back layups and a three-pointer as FSU rushed shots to attempt to answer. The Gators pushed the lead to nine points before FSU trimmed the lead to five with 4:52 remaining, but Florida answered with a run to stretch the lead back to seven with 3:15 remaining.
The Noles wouldn’t go away, cutting the lead to 71-70 with 1:24 remaining on two Robert McCray free throws. The Noles had a chance to tie the game at 74-74 with Robert McCray at the free throw line, but he missed the backend of a one-and-one with 17.8 seconds remaining. The Florida Gators were in the double bonus and made both free throws to make it 76-73 with 15.8 remaining.
Robert McCray missed a three-pointer from the corner, and the Florida Gators made two free throws to seal the win 78-73.
FSU led 40-37 at the half, but had to play much of the second half without its leading scorer Lajae Jones.
FSU only shot 26.5 percent from three-point land and 33.8 percent overall. They only had 10 turnovers and made 21 of 25 free throws. FSU forced 18 turnovers, but only generated 12 points off of those.
The Gators dominated on the boards with a 58 to 36 edge overall and 17 to 8 edge on the offensive end. Florida had a 36 to 28 edge with points in the paint and shot 22 of 32 from the free throw line.
Robert McCray led FSU with 29 points. FSU's leading scorer, Lajae Jones only played 25 minutes and had three points due to foul trouble.
FSU showed a lot of heart to fight back, but the loss of composure for a couple of minutes down the stretch is what cost them in the end. FSU has a ton of potential and could make some noise if they can learn from its mistakes.