2015-16 Men's Basketball - Year In Review | |
| Coaching Staff Leonard Hamilton, Head Coach Michael Bradley, Strength and Conditioning Dennis Gates, Assistant Coach Stan Jones, Associate Head Coach Jacob Ridenhour, Director of Operations Charlton Young, Assistant Coach  Click here to see individual photos |
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Malik Beasley, 6-5, 196, G, Alpharetta, Ga. - “Malik Beasley impacts every facet of the game – he can explode above the rim in transition, or use his strength to create separation for jump shots in the half court. Beasley embraces rebounding from the wing, and he is always slashing to the hoop which makes him a scoring threat even without the ball in his hands. Defensively, he has the physical strength to stick to small forwards, but also the quickness to stay in front of point and shooting guards. It’s rare that you see a guy so naturally gifted as a player with such unwavering competiveness,” said Elson Khorshidi of Slam Magazine. ON BEASLEY: Ranked 28th nationally in the final ESPN Top 100 of the 2015 season…ranked as the second best player in the state of Georgia and the seventh best shooting guard nationally entering the college ranks for the 2015 season by ESPN…ranked 43rd nationally by Rivals.com…a four-star shooting guard and ranked as the nation’s 23rd best player by 247Sports…ranked as the 52nd best high school player by Scout.com…teamed with Seminole teammate Dwayne Bacon in the Jordan Brand Classic in April of 2015…scored 16 points to go along with three assists, three rebounds, two steals and one blocked shot to lead the West Team to a 118-116 win in the game played at Barclay’s Center in Brooklyn, N.Y…Bacon totaled eight points and five rebounds in the win…a member of the U.S. All-Stars team in the 2015 Capital Classic…scored a team-leading 16 points to help the U.S. All-Stars to a 105-102 victory in the game which was played at The Catholic University in Washington, D.C…led all scorers with 22 points for Team Elite in the BallisLife All-American game in May of 2015 at Long Beach City College in Long Beach, Calif…Beasley led Team Elite past Team Future, 113-110…Team Future was led by Florida State freshman Dwayne Bacon who scored 20 points…plays for the Georgia Stars in the EYBL…participated in the LeBron James Skills Academy and played in the Nike Global Challenge in 2014…stands 6-5 with a wingspan of 6-6… AT SAINT FRANCIS: Graduated from St. Francis in 2015… the state of Georgia Class 1A Player of the Year and an All-State Class A First Team selection as a senior…the No. 2 ranked player in the state of Georgia by HoopSeen in leading the Knights with a 22.2 ppg scoring average while shooting better than 60 percent from the field, 49 percent from the 3-point line and better than 90 percent from the free throw line as a senior…averaged 22.2 ppg, 6.9 rpg, 2.9 apg, 1.9 spg and 0.6 bpg as a senior…with Beasley in the lineup, St. Francis played one of the nation’s toughest schedules with two games against high school national champion Montverde and one against Miller Grove – considered to be one of the best teams in the state of Georgia…scored his senior season high of 37 in the Knights’ season-opening victory over Banneker…was three of four from the 3-point line and was a perfect 10 of 10 from the free throw line in the victory…a near triple double against Banneker with 37 points, 10 rebounds and seven assists…added 36 in a victory over Douglas County and 35 in a win over Aquinas as a senior…scored 30 points or more seven times including three consecutive games of 30 or more (35 against Aquinas, 32 against Lakeview Academy and 30 versus Whitfield Academy) in February of his senior season…scored 24 points and pulled down 11 rebounds in St. Francis’ come-from-behind victory over Holy Innocents in the 2015 state championship tournament…earned six double-doubles (including a 29 point-14 rebound performance against Buford)…totaled a season high four steals seven times and earned a season high four blocked shots in a win over Miller Grove…averaged 19.1 points, 8.3 rebounds, 2.4 assists and 2.1 steals in leading St. Francis to the state championship during his junior season…led the Knights to a 24-7 record as a junior…became the first Saint Francis player to reach the 1,000-point mark for his career as a junior…was the leading scorer for the Georgia Stars in the 2014 Nike EYBL with a 19.6 points per game scoring average to go with 5.2 rebounds and 1.1 steals per game…was the first player to commit to head coach Leonard Hamilton and his staff on September 5, 2014 during his official visit…his pledge to become a Seminole began an incredible string of commitments that has added up to the greatest recruiting class in school history… PERSONAL: Born November 26, 1996…Malik is the son of Michael and Deena Beasley…family is very important to Malik…education and receiving his degree from Florida State is very important to Malik and his parents…father played professional basketball in Chili, the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico before Malik was born…chose Florida State over Maryland, St. John’s, UCLA, UConn, VCU, Oregon, Wake Forest and Georgia…
Benji Bell, 6-4, 204, G, Gainesville - “Benji is a competitor. He can get anywhere he wants to go. He can shoot it, he can pass it, and he can drive it. And he’s developed a good mid-range game. He’s a dynamic passer, electrifying scorer and a big-time shot maker. Benji is a really good on-ball defender with great anticipation, is really good at breaking people down, and getting all of his teammates involved,” said Northwest Florida State College head coach Steve DeMeo. ON BELL: NJCAA Division I All-America First Team Selection who led Northwest Florida State to the Junior College National Championship in 2015…signed his National Letter of Intent right after leading the Raiders to the National Championship in Hutchinson, Kansas…averaged 17.4 points, 5.3 rebounds and 2.3 steals per game in being named a junior college Division I All-American by the NJCAA in 2015…earned All-Panhandle Conference Second Team honors as a freshman at NWF as he averaged 13.1 ppg, 2.7 apg and 2.6 rpg… averaged 13.1 ppg, 3.3rpg, 3.0 apg and 1.9 spg as a senior at Blanche Ely High School in 2012…led Blanche Ely to the Florida Class 7A State Championship…attended Eastside High School in Gainesville, Fla. as a high school freshman and sophomore, Quality Education Academy in Winston-Salem, N.C. as a prep junior, graduated from Blanche Ely High School in Pompano Beach, Fla., in 2012, attended Massanutten Military Academy in 2012 and Northwestern Florida State College in 2014 and 2015… AT NORTHWEST FLORIDA STATE: Earned his Associate’s Degree from Northwest Florida State in June of 2015…led the Raiders to the junior college national championship with a 4-0 record in the national tournament in Hutchinson, Ks., With wins over Columbia State (24 points), Northwest College (21 points), Georgia Highlands (18 points) and South Plains in the national championship game (28 points)…his play helped the Raiders to the No. 2 seed in the national tournament…averaged 17.4 points, 5.3 rebounds and 2.3 steals per game in being named a junior college Division I All-American by the NJCAA in 2015…also shot 49 percent from the field and 44.5 percent from the 3-ponit line as a sophomore…averaged 2.2 made 3-point field goals per game as a sophomore…led NWF to a 33-2 record as a sophomore and a two-year record of 55-8…named the Panhandle Conference Player of the Year and to the All-Panhandle Conference First Team as a sophomore…the Most Valuable Player and headed up the FCSSA/NJCAA Region VIII All-Tournament team…averaged 20.7 points, 2.7 rebounds and 3.2 assists in earning MVP honors at the Region VIII Tournament…during the Region VIII Tournament he scored 24 points in a victory over Hillsborough Community College, 13 in a win over Miami Dade Community College and totaled 25 in the Raiders’ championship-game victory over Eastern Florida State…shot 53.8 percent from the field and 38.9 percent from the 3-point line in the Region VIII Tournament…in the championship game he scored 10 points in the final 4:03 of the games to lead NWF past Eastern Florida State, 76-69 – a win that gave NWF its first state championship since 2012…earned All-Panhandle Conference Second Team honors as a freshman as he averaged 13.1 ppg, 2.7 apg and 2.6 rpg… AT MASSANUTTEN MILITARY ACADEMY: Attended Massanutten for one season (2012-13)…prepped at Massanutten following his senior year…led the Colonels to a 30-4 record and helped them advance to the National Prep Championship Elite Eight, where they lost in overtime to eighth-ranked Notre Dame Prep… AT BLANCHE ELY: Graduated from Blanche Ely in 2012…a three-star point guard as rated by ESPN.com…averaged 13.1 ppg, 3.3 rpg, 3.0 apg and 1.9 spg as a senior…led Blanche Ely High School in Pompano Beach Fla., to the Class 7A state championship and an appearance in the semifinals of the National High School Invitational in 2012…led Blanche Ely to a 30-3 record during his senior season as a prep star…The Tigers earned the No. 5 seed in the ESPN High School Invitational Tournament during his senior season…led the Tigers to the quarterfinals of the national tournament where they fell to St. Benedict’s 67-61…Blanch Ely ranked 14th nationally in the final X-Cellent MaxPreps Top 25 of the 2012 season…scored 20 points or more as a senior including 28 against Plantation, 26 versus Salesian College Prep, and 24 each against St. Thomas Aquinas and Constitution… PERSONAL: Born September 3, 1993…full name is Josephus Benjamin Bell…Benji is the son of Sheila Baker Bell…is the fifth of six children…a brother, Robert Baker, played collegiate football at Auburn, in the NFL for the Miami Dolphins (1999-02) and Minnesota Vikings (2003); in the World League of American Football for the Frankfurt Galaxy (2003) and in the CFL for the Toronto Argonauts (2004-06) as a wide receiver…another brother, Dante Anderson, was a highly recruited high school basketball star in the state of Florida before his untimely death prior to his senior season in 2007…attended the same high school as former Seminole football standouts Corey Simon and brothers Henri and Zach Crockett…selected Florida State over Pitt, Indiana, Purdue, Memphis, Georgia Tech, Kansas State, Xavier, Houston, Southern Cal, Seton Hall and Oregon…
Christ Koumadje, 7-4, 233, C, N'Djamena, Chad - "In addition to his obvious size, he runs the floor extremely well and is very bouncy and assertive despite a frame that’s very lean. When it comes to his skill set, there aren’t many big men with a more intriguing combination of physical tools,” said Adam Finkelstein of ESPN.com. ON KOUMADJE: At 7-4, he is the tallest player in Florida State history…a 5-star recruit by Florida Hoops…a 4-star recruit and the No. 25 ranked center by ESPN.com…the No. 28 prep prospect at the center position by scout.com…has tremendous range as a shot blocker…played for two seasons at Montverde Academy (2014 and 2015) and was introduced to the game of basketball when he played in the Basketball Without Boarders camp in Nigeria in 2013…his most impressive attributes are his ability to run the floor and finish at the rim…gives the Seminoles another rim protector in addition to seniors Boris Bojanovksy and Michael Ojo…while his long reach makes him an intimidating shot blocker, his development of a jumper in the from inside and outside of the lane has vastly improved his offensive game…is very athletic, has great coordination and a unlimited celling as a basketball player…impacts each game he plays in with his ability to get his hands in passing lanes and on shots…his stock improved throughout his senior season after he realized a breakout at the Reebok Classic in July of 2014…reports from the Reebok Classic characterized him as a “terror on both offense and defense, dunking everything in his are and rebounding and blocking shots at a high rate.”… AT MONTVERDE ACADEMY: Graduated from Montverde Academy in 2015…was a member of the Eagle’s National Championship teams as both a junior and as a senior…averaged 2.9 points, 3.4 rebounds and 2.2 blocked shots as a senior in 2015…defeated Oak Hill Academy and Seminole teammate Dwayne Bacon, 70-61, in the national championship at Madison Square Garden on April 4, 2015…a starter in the Eagles’ victory over Oak Hill in the national championship game…helped Montverde to a 31-1 record during the 2015 season…was a member of Montverde’s undefeated team (28-0)…his record as a two-year varsity letter winner at Montverde was 59-1 (.983 winning percentage)…played on the same team as Ben Simmons of LSU who was generally considered to be the nation’s No. 1 prep recruit in 2015…totaled blocked shots in 20 of the 23 games he played in as a senior…totaled a season high five blocked shots against IMG Academy on November 28 and four against Wayne High School on December 19…among his Montverde teammates who Koumadje and Seminoles will face during the 2015-16 season are Noah Dickerson of Florida and Doral More of Wake Forest… PERSONAL: Born July 7, 1996…Jean Marc is the son of Rose Tormal Mala and Gabin Koumadje…made his recruiting visit to Florida State with Dwayne Bacon and Malik Bealsey and committed soon after the visit to Tallahassee…also plays on the Showtime Ballers AAU team along with Bacon…chose to play at Florida State after receiving offers from UConn, Louisville, Tennessee, Washington, Georgia Tech, Auburn and UCLA…
Terance Mann, 6-6, 204, G, Lowell, Mass. - “Terance Mann is a very good ball handler for his size, excellent passer, and has a high basketball IQ. He's a good athlete who can defend multiple backcourt positions and is an outstanding rebounder in the backcourt. He uses his length well to score the ball, both in the open floor as well as the half court, where he'll look to attack bigger gaps in the defense and score over the top of smaller defenders. Mann's versatility allows him the flexibility to blend in to just about any type of lineup. He's has been more of a swingman but started to evolve into a true guard even playing the point on the EYBL circuit with BABC,” said Adam Finkelstein of ESPN.com. ON MANN: A highly regarded player in Florida State’s incredible recruiting class that begins play as a Seminole for the 2015-16 season…ranked as a 4-star recruit and as the 43rd-best prep player entering the collegiate ranks for the 2015-16 season…the No. 6 ranked player in the New England Region by the New England Recruiting Report…a top 100 recruit and ranked as the 76th best prep player in 2015 by ESPN.com…played in the Jordan Brand Regional game at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, N.Y. on April 17, 2015…earned a double-double of 20 pints and 13 rebounds to go along with four assists and two steals in 22 minutes of play in leading his team to a 125-112 win in the Jordan Brand game…is characterized as a player with a very high basketball IQ who has the ability to change a game on both the offensive and defensive ends of the court…has become a big-time finisher at the rim and continues to add muscle to his frame…guarded current Kansas junior Wayne Selden when he arrived at Tilton as a sophomore…said to be as versatile a player as there was in the New England region as senior who his comfortable playing four different positions and sets himself apart with his passing, rebounding and winning spirit…a standout at the 2015 Hoophall Classic at Springfield College…a member of the United States East team at the 2014 Global Challenge in Chicago…also a standout at the 2014 Lebron James Skills Academy in Las Vegas and the 2014 Kevin Durant Skills Academy in Washington, D.C…led the Boston Area Basketball Club to the EYBL Finals of the 2014 Peach Jam as he averaged 9.2 points and 5.8 rebounds during the tournament… AT TILTON SCHOOL: Graduated from the Tilton School in Tilton, NH in 2015…averaged 23.1 points and 7.8 rebounds while shooting 61 percent from the field as a senior…the Gatorade Boys Basketball Player of the Year in the state of New Hampshire in 2015…the Class AA Player of the Year and an All Class AA First Team selection by the New England Recruiting Report as a senior…as Class AA First-Team selection as a junior…earned First Team honors from the New England Preparatory School Athletic Council (NEPSAC) as a senior…led the Rams to New Hampshire Class AA state championship in 2015…led 18 points in the Rams 68-63 win over Vermont Academy in the NEPSAC championship game in 2015…named the MVP of the 2014 St. Andrew Holiday Classic…starred in the 2eZ All-Star game following his junior season at Tilton…began to make his name following his sophomore season as a standout player at the New England Elite 75 Showcase… PERSONAL: Born October 18, 1996…Terance is the son of Daynia La-Force and Eustace Mann…his mother, Daynia, is the head women’s basketball coach at Rhode Island who enjoyed a standout playing career at Georgetown…is very community serviced oriented and has volunteered as a mentor for children with special needs and as a youth basketball coach…is named after his grandmother, Terancia…his dad, Eustace, was an acid soccer player in his prime – a sport Terance has also excelled in…Terance committed himself to basketball as an eighth grader and began playing for the Boston Amateur Basketball Club – one of the more prominent AAU programs in the nation…was the first of Florida State incredible 2015 recruiting class to pledge his commitment to head coach Leonard Hamilton and his staff…selected Florida State over Indiana, Boston College, Iowa, Maryland, Florida and West Virginia…
Bacon And Beasley Earn Freshman All-America Honors. April 6, 2016 TALLAHASSEE, FL – Florida State’s Dwayne Bacon and Malik Beasley, the Seminoles’
top two scorers during the 2015-16 season, have been named to the 2016 Kyle Macy Freshman All-American Team presented by collegeinsider.com. Bacon (15.8 ppg) and Beasley (15.6 ppg) enjoyed two of the
most productive seasons in school history as they led the Seminoles to a 20-14 record and into the second round of the NIT. Bacon and Beasley, who were both named to the All-ACC Freshman team,
where one of only three sets of teammates named to the 30-member squad. They were two of five ACC freshmen (Bryant Crawford of Wake Forest, Brandon Ingram of Duke, Malachi Richardson of Syracuse)
included on the list and were two of the three freshmen who finished the season ranked among the ACC’s top 20 overall scorers. Bacon was named the ACC Rookie of the Week a school-record five times
this season. He finished his first collegiate season ranked 13th overall (and second among freshmen) in scoring and 20th overall (and third among freshman) in rebounding making him one of only two
freshmen in the ACC who ranked in the top 20 in the conference in scoring and rebounding. Bacon will return to Florida State as one of the nation’s top players for the 2016-17 season. Beasley,
was named the ACC Rookie of the Week three times, ranked 16th overall in the ACC in scoring, eighth in free throw shooting percentage (.813), 10th in field goal percentage (.471) and 25th in
rebounding (5.3). He was the only freshman in the ACC to rank in the top 10 in the ACC in field goal and free throw shooting and was one of only two players in the ACC who shot better than 40 percent
from the field and better than 80 percent from the free throw line. Beasley announced on March 21 that he would make himself available for the 2016 NBA Draft. Bacon and Beasley are the second
and third Seminoles to be named to the Kyle Macy Freshman All-American team in the last two seasons. Sophomore Xavier Rathan-Mayes was named to the team in 2015. Brandon Ingram of Duke University
was named as the recipient of the 2016 Kyle Macy award, presented annually to the nation's top freshman. The award is named after 1975 Indiana Mr. Basketball Kyle Macy, who played his freshman
season at Purdue University, averaging 13.8 points per game while leadingthe Boilermakers in free throws. After playing his freshman year at Purdue, Macy transferred to the University of Kentucky in
1976.
2016 Roster - By Name
L
T PY
R No Name Pos Hgt Wgt Cl Ltr Hometown (Prior School)
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40 Brandon Allen F 6-6 209 Jr ** Milton (Milton)
* 4 Dwayne Bacon G 6-7 221 Fr Lakeland (Oak Hill Academy)
* 5 Malik Beasley G 6-5 196 Fr Alpharetta, Ga. (Saint Francis School)
* 3 Benji Bell G 6-4 204 Jr Gainesville (Ely/Northwest Florida State Coll)
24 Robbie Berwick G 6-4 188 So * Atascadero, Calif. (Atascadero)
* 15 Boris Bojanovsky C 7-3 248 Sr *** Bratislava, Slovak Republic (Oakley College)
* 1 Devon Bookert G 6-3 198 Sr *** Anchorage, Alaska (West Anchorage)
* 32 Montay Brandon G 6-8 229 Sr *** Greensboro, N.C. (Wesleyan Christian)
0 Phil Cofer F 6-8 218 So * Atlanta, Ga. (Whitewater)
* 21 Christ Koumadje C 7-4 233 Fr N'Djamena, Chad (Montverde Academy)
* 14 Terance Mann G 6-6 204 Fr Lowell, Mass. (Tilton School)
50 Michael Ojo C 7-1 304 Sr *** Lagos, Nigeria (Tennessee Temple)
* 22 Xavier Rathan-Mayes G 6-4 208 So-R * Scarborough, Ontario, Canada (Huntington Prep)
* 31 Michael Saxton G 6-5 213 Sr * Orlando (Lake Highland Prep/Tallahassee CC)
* 23 Jarquez Smith F 6-9 236 Jr ** Haddock, Ga. (Jones County)
2016 Roster - By Number
L
T PY
R No Name Pos Hgt Wgt Cl Ltr Hometown (Prior School)
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0 Phil Cofer F 6-8 218 So * Atlanta, Ga. (Whitewater)
* 1 Devon Bookert G 6-3 198 Sr *** Anchorage, Alaska (West Anchorage)
* 3 Benji Bell G 6-4 204 Jr Gainesville (Ely/Northwest Florida State Coll)
* 4 Dwayne Bacon G 6-7 221 Fr Lakeland (Oak Hill Academy)
* 5 Malik Beasley G 6-5 196 Fr Alpharetta, Ga. (Saint Francis School)
* 14 Terance Mann G 6-6 204 Fr Lowell, Mass. (Tilton School)
* 15 Boris Bojanovsky C 7-3 248 Sr *** Bratislava, Slovak Republic (Oakley College)
* 21 Christ Koumadje C 7-4 233 Fr N'Djamena, Chad (Montverde Academy)
* 22 Xavier Rathan-Mayes G 6-4 208 So-R * Scarborough, Ontario, Canada (Huntington Prep)
* 23 Jarquez Smith F 6-9 236 Jr ** Haddock, Ga. (Jones County)
24 Robbie Berwick G 6-4 188 So * Atascadero, Calif. (Atascadero)
* 31 Michael Saxton G 6-5 213 Sr * Orlando (Lake Highland Prep/Tallahassee CC)
* 32 Montay Brandon G 6-8 229 Sr *** Greensboro, N.C. (Wesleyan Christian)
40 Brandon Allen F 6-6 209 Jr ** Milton (Milton)
50 Michael Ojo C 7-1 304 Sr *** Lagos, Nigeria (Tennessee Temple)
From the FSU Website, seminoles.com.
2015-16 Conference Awards
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Dwayne Bacon Atlantic Coast Conference - All-Rookie
Malik Beasley Atlantic Coast Conference - All-Conference - Honorable Mention
Atlantic Coast Conference - All-Rookie
All-Conference - 2
2015-16 All-Americans
Name Organization
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Dwayne Bacon Kyle Macy - Freshman
Malik Beasley Kyle Macy - Freshman
All-Americans - 2
2015-16 Award Winners
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Hugh Durham College Basketball Hall of Fame
Award Winners - 1
2015-16 Noles in the Pros
Name No Pos Team
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Toney Douglas 16 G New Orleans Pelicans
Noles in the Pros - 1
2016 Schedule and Results
GAME |
SCORE |
AP |
USA |
AP |
USA |
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|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nicholls State | |||||||||||||
| Jacksonville | |||||||||||||
| Hofstra Paradise Jam, Saint Thomas, Virgin Islands |
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| DePaul Paradise Jam, Saint Thomas, Virgin Islands |
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| Ohio Paradise Jam, Saint Thomas, Virgin Islands |
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| Iowa OT, ACC/Big Ten Challenge |
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| VA Commonwealth Atlanta, Ga. |
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| Southeastern LA | |||||||||||||
| Mississippi State | |||||||||||||
| Florida Atlantic Orange Bowl Classic, Sunrise |
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| Charleston Southern | |||||||||||||
| Florida | |||||||||||||
| Clemson Greenville, S.C. |
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| North Carolina | |||||||||||||
| Miami | |||||||||||||
| North Carolina State | |||||||||||||
| Virginia | |||||||||||||
| Louisville | |||||||||||||
| Pittsburgh | |||||||||||||
| Boston College | |||||||||||||
| Clemson | |||||||||||||
| North Carolina State | |||||||||||||
| Wake Forest | |||||||||||||
| Syracuse | |||||||||||||
| Miami | |||||||||||||
| Georgia Tech | |||||||||||||
| Virginia Tech | |||||||||||||
| Duke | |||||||||||||
| Notre Dame | |||||||||||||
| Syracuse | |||||||||||||
| Boston College ACC, Washington, D.C. |
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| Virginia Tech ACC, Washington, D.C. |
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| Davidson College NIT |
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| Valparaiso NIT |
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EOY StatsRef Conference games in bold Overall Home Away Neutral ------------------------------------------------ FSU record is 20-14 11- 4 4- 7 5- 3 vs ACC 8-10 5- 4 3- 5 0- 1 Against Top 25 2- 6 2- 3 0- 3 0- 0
2015-16 Atlantic Coast Conference Results 1 North Carolina 14- 4 33- 7 2t Miami 13- 5 27- 8 2t Virginia 13- 5 29- 8 4 Louisville 12- 6 23- 8 5t Duke 11- 7 25-11 5t Notre Dame 11- 7 24-12 7t Clemson 10- 8 17-14 7t Virginia Tech 10- 8 20-15 9t Pittsburgh 9- 9 21-12 9t Syracuse 9- 9 23-14 11t Florida State 8-10 20-14 11t Georgia Tech 8-10 21-15 13 North Carolina State 5-13 16-17 14 Wake Forest 2-16 11-20 15 Boston College 0-18 7-25
2015-16 CONFERENCE TOURNAMENT, Washington, D.C. Date Score Comments ========== ================================================== ================================== 03/08/2016 (12)North Carolina State 75, (13)Wake Forest 72 Round 1 03/08/2016 (11)Florida State 88, (14)Boston College 66 Round 1 03/09/2016 (8)Pittsburgh 72, (9)Syracuse 71 Round 2 03/09/2016 (5)Duke 92, (12)North Carolina State 89 Round 2 03/09/2016 (10)Georgia Tech 88, (7)Clemson 85 Round 2, OT 03/09/2016 (6)Virginia Tech 96, (11)Florida State 85 Round 2 03/10/2016 (1)North Carolina 88, (8)Pittsburgh 71 Round 3 03/10/2016 (4)Notre Dame 84, (5)Duke 79 Round 3, OT 03/10/2016 (2)Virginia 72, (10)Georgia Tech 52 Round 3 03/10/2016 (3)Miami 88, (6)Virginia Tech 82 Round 3 03/11/2016 (1)North Carolina 78, (4)Notre Dame 47 Round 4 03/11/2016 (2)Virginia 73, (3)Miami 68 Round 4 03/12/2016 (1)North Carolina 61, (2)Virginia 57 Round 5
2015-16 - 30 Point Club
Name Date Opponent FGM FGA 3FGM 3FGA FTM FTA PTS --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Xavier Rathan-Mayes 01/04/2016 North Carolina 8 16 7 9 7 9 302015-16 - 15 Rebound Club
Name Date Opponent O-REB D-REB TOTAL ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ None2015-16 - 10 Assist Club
Name Date Opponent Assists ------------------------------------------------------------------ Xavier Rathan-Mayes 11/15/2015 Nicholls State 11 Xavier Rathan-Mayes 12/13/2015 Southeastern LA 11
--3 Point--- ----REBOUNDS-----
Name GP GS Min FGM FGA PCT FGM FGA PCT FTM FTA PCT PTS AVG OFF DEF TOT AVG PF DQ AST TO BLK STL
====================================================================================================================================
Dwayne Bacon 34 33 979 197 441 .447 32 114 .281 110 154 .714 536 15.8 46 151 197 5.8 73 1 50 74 1 33
Malik Beasley 34 34 1014 185 393 .471 55 142 .387 104 128 .813 529 15.6 44 136 180 5.3 75 3 51 59 6 32
Xavier Rathan-Mayes 33 32 968 131 321 .408 39 137 .285 89 115 .774 390 11.8 12 80 92 2.8 69 1 146 83 0 33
Devon Bookert 33 2 868 107 252 .425 59 151 .391 40 53 .755 313 9.5 30 60 90 2.7 63 1 91 48 2 55
Boris Bojanovsky 34 34 612 75 129 .581 0 4 .000 59 85 .694 209 6.1 62 87 149 4.4 92 2 14 39 59 21
Terance Mann 34 0 577 73 125 .584 4 13 .308 27 59 .458 177 5.2 44 82 126 3.7 62 1 30 24 7 21
Jarquez Smith 34 0 489 72 131 .550 2 12 .167 29 41 .707 175 5.1 40 79 119 3.5 79 1 7 36 34 14
Benji Bell 33 0 342 39 99 .394 23 54 .426 25 45 .556 126 3.8 8 26 34 1.0 29 0 29 22 0 10
Montay Brandon 33 31 655 37 86 .430 2 7 .286 30 55 .545 106 3.2 39 62 101 3.1 68 0 32 33 8 19
Phil Cofer 11 3 132 13 23 .565 0 1 .000 16 19 .842 42 3.8 5 17 22 2.0 9 0 2 7 3 4
Christ Koumadje 26 0 159 13 27 .481 0 0 .000 7 17 .412 33 1.3 10 28 38 1.5 36 1 1 11 19 0
Michael Saxton 11 1 30 6 15 .400 4 10 .400 0 0 .000 16 1.5 4 6 10 0.9 1 0 0 1 0 1
Team 45 54 99 4
====================================================================================================================================
FSU 34 948 2042 .464 220 645 .341 536 771 .695 2652 78.0 389 868 1257 37.0 656 11 453 441 139 243
Opp 34 875 1981 .442 265 733 .362 501 728 .688 2516 74.0 342 798 1140 33.5 669 20 447 464 103 180
From the FSU Website, seminoles.com.
Noles Cruise In Season Opener, 109-62.
TALLAHASSEE, FL – It took all of 16 seconds for the new-look Florida State men’s basketball team to get coach Leonard Hamilton’s 14th season off to a sizzling start.
Freshman Dwayne Bacon Jr. dropped a 3-pointer from the right wing and the Seminoles were off and running to a 109-62 victory over Nicholls State Sunday at the Donald L. Tucker Center.
The Seminoles made good on seven of their first eight shots and never looked back, cracking the century mark for the first time in 36 games and just the fifth time in the 410th game under Hamilton, who was recognized as the program’s all-time wins leader in a brief pregame ceremony.
Hamilton and the Seminoles won’t have any trouble adding up victories if they perform at the level they demonstrated against the out-manned Colonels. Florida State shot 65 percent from the floor, doubled up their guests on the boards (42-21) and committed just 13 turnovers, most of which came well after the outcome had been decided.
“Offensively we have the potential to score points, but defensively we have a ways to go,” Hamilton said. “The thing I liked most was the unselfish spirit and the way we played to each other.”
With sophomore guard Xavier Rathan-Mayes comfortably running the show – he posted his second career double-double with 11 points and 11 assists - the Seminoles dished out 18 assists on 40 made field goals.
There were no signs of opening night jitters for an FSU squad that started two freshmen and two sophomores, and brought two more first-year players off the bench to pitch in significant contributions.
Florida State’s highly touted trio of Malik Beasley, Terance Mann and Bacon combined for 55 points on 23 of 31 shooting, and added 13 rebounds, eight steals and four assists.
“It just speaks volumes to our unselfish spirit,” Rathan-Mayes said of the opening night performance. “Guys are willing to make the extra pass to get the easy basket …getting guys layups instead of taking contested mid-range [shots] and contested threes. It speaks to our ability to create easy plays for one another and just play together.”
Couple that spirit with a collective talent level that rivals anything Hamilton has sent to the floor in garnet & gold and you had the perfect recipe for a rousing opening night debut.
There was little Nicholls State coach J.P. Piper could do but heap praise on the Seminoles.
“We hoped the fact that we were a little older and they were younger would be a factor in the game, but I couldn’t tell you who the freshmen were and who they weren’t,” Piper said. “They all looked like veteran players to me…
“Honestly, they run faster than us. We’re sprinting guys back and they’re still beating us down the floor and the ball is at the rim before we can even prepare to defend it…I thought we competed, but they were just better; superior athletes and very comfortable playing fast. They seemed to thrive on it and things seemed to snowball.”
Bacon led five Seminole double-figure scorers with 23 points on 9-of-15 shooting and also grabbed a game-high eight rebounds. Beasley added 21 on 7-of-9 shooting and Mann added 15 points on 7-of-8 shooting.
The Seminoles shot nearly 66 percent from the floor for the game, unfathomably improving in the second half after building a 60-32 halftime lead after shooting 62 percent over the first 20 minutes.
FSU’s first half production not only eclipsed last season’s high of 53 in an 86-75 win over Virginia Tech, but the Seminoles had more points at the break than they did in 11 games last season. They seized control of the contest by outscoring the Colonels 20-10 in the paint and 22-12 off the bench.
Rathan-Mayes had a lot to do with that, responding to Hamilton’s offseason challenge to become a complete player.
When asked what he envisioned for himself as the team’s lead guard, Rathan-Mayes said:
“Just being efficient out there; taking good shots, getting guys involved and making my teammates happy. If I’m able to do that on a night-to-night basis, I think we’re going to be OK.”
“I think we all know that Xavier is making a certain effort to get his teammates involved,” Hamilton said. “That’s a credit to him.”
Senior guard Devon Bookert contributed 11 points off the bench, including three 3-pointers on a night when the Noles converted 10 of 20 from beyond the arc. Sophomore forward Phil Cofer added nine points and five rebounds to the cause.
In every aspect, it was a convincing victory – No. 237 for Hamilton at FSU – and No. 459 all-time.
“We were not able to execute defensively or offensive for most of the game,” Piper said. “There were no surprises. We knew what they were going to do. We were there a lot of times and they made the play anyway. They’re a very, very talented team and we couldn’t seem to make them miss. I anticipated we would struggle to score, I did not anticipate they would shoot the ball as well as they did for the duration of the game.”
Though he appreciated his team’s effort at both ends of the floor, Hamilton said the Noles still have a long way to go defensively. Still, they held the Colonels to 38 percent shooting for the game, forced 17 turnovers and came away with 11 steals.
“In our world we think we shoot the ball well,” Piper said. “You wouldn’t know it tonight.”
NO NAME GS MIN FGM FGA 3FGM 3FGA FTM FTA PTS OREB DREB REB PF AST TO BLK STL
== ==================== == === === === ==== ==== === === === ==== ==== === == === == === ===
0 Phil Cofer f 25 3 4 0 1 3 4 9 0 5 5 3 0 1 0 0
4 Dwayne Bacon g 24 9 15 1 4 4 4 23 0 8 8 2 1 0 0 2
5 Malik Beasley g 22 7 9 3 4 4 5 21 0 0 0 2 2 1 0 2
15 Boris Bojanovsky c 14 2 5 0 0 3 5 7 2 2 4 4 0 1 1 1
22 Xavier Rathan-Mayes g 31 5 8 0 2 1 1 11 0 3 3 1 11 3 0 1
1 Devon Bookert 26 3 7 3 6 2 4 11 1 2 3 2 1 2 0 1
14 Terance Mann 27 7 8 1 1 0 1 15 1 4 5 3 1 2 0 4
21 Christ Koumadje 10 1 1 0 0 1 2 3 1 3 4 3 0 1 0 0
23 Jarquez Smith 15 2 3 1 1 1 2 6 1 3 4 2 2 2 0 0
31 Michael Saxton 6 1 1 1 1 0 0 3 1 1 2 1 0 0 0 0
Team 4 4
=========================================================================
FSU 5 200 40 61 10 20 19 28 109 7 35 42 23 18 13 1 11
Opp 200 22 58 7 26 11 22 62 4 17 21 23 9 17 0 5
| 1 | 2 | Total | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nicholls State | |||
| Florida State |
From the FSU Website, seminoles.com.
Bacon, Beasley Lead Seminole Surge Past Dolphins, 98-79.
TALLAHASSEE, FL – Good things come in pairs – or very nearly - it seems for the Florida State men’s basketball team.
Led by the freshmen tandem of Dwayne Bacon Jr. and Malik Beasley, the Seminoles overcame a sluggish start to roll past Jacksonville 98-79 Tuesday night at the Donald L. Tucker Center.
Bacon and Beasley combined for 48 points on 17-of-29 shooting, connecting for 27 and 21 points, respectively, as the Seminoles flirted with back-to-back 100-point performances to open the season for the first time in 27 years.
The Seminoles (2-0) might have reached the century mark had coach Leonard Hamilton not told his squad to dribble the final 25 seconds off the clock. FSU shot 57 percent from the floor and for the second consecutive game was even better in the second half (63 percent) than the first.
On a night when defense appeared optional from both sides, Bacon and Beasley became the first freshmen to open their Florida State careers with consecutive 20-point performances since Tat Hunter pulled off the feat to start the 1985-86 season.
“There’s no doubt they’re making major contributions and I think they’re playing the game the right way,” Hamilton said of Bacon and Beasley.
It was quite a sendoff for the Seminoles, who head to the U.S. Virgin Islands for three games at the Paradise Jam Tournament, followed by two more road games their next home game on Dec. 13.
There was no shortage of aesthetically pleasing offensive plays as the Seminoles put four players in double figures with Xavier Rathan-Mayes and Boris Bojanovsky contributing 13 and 10 points, respectively.
“I thought this was an excellent game for us. I thought this team was very well prepared,” said Hamilton. “They put the ball in the hands of their best player, who had kind of an unorthodox game that was very challenging for us…He was putting it in the hole.”
JU senior point guard Kori Babineaux scored 21 of his game-high 31 points in the first half, repeatedly beating the Noles with drives to the basket.
“I’ve said all along I was concerned about our defense,” Hamilton said. “[Jacksonville] shot 44 percent from the floor; a lot because they had a guy who was virtually unstoppable for us tonight and they had shooters on the corners. Our defensive techniques are not very good right now…They challenged all of our defensive principles, but I can look back at the game and I thought that every player that played had a moment where they got a lot of things right.”
The Noles began to show signs of solving Babineaux and the Dolphins (0-2) after Hamilton went to five fresh reserves at the first media timeout of the game. FSU’s Devon Bookert, Montay Brandon, Benji Bell, Terance Mann and Jarquez Smith provided a big lift with defense and emotion, turning an 11-point deficit into a three-point game before the starters returned at the second media timeout and restored order.
Florida State closed out the first half by outscoring Jacksonville 27-11 over the final 12 minutes for a 44-38 halftime lead that was never threatened.
“The first 10 minutes of the game we scored 10 points and the next 30 minutes we scored 88 points,” Hamilton said. “Obviously, we’re showing we have the ability to score.”
Any doubt about the outcome was put to rest during a two-minute stretch early in the second half. Beasley’s 3-pointer with 17:43 remaining sparked a 9-0 run, capped by Bacon’s weaving, coast-to-coast drive and dunk for a 57-41 lead. Marcel White (17 points) stopped a two-minute scoreless stretch for JU, but Beasley finished off 12-2 run with another 3-pointer, which pushed FSU’s lead to 17.
“If you miss a shot, you’re in deep trouble,” Jacksonville coach Tony Jasick said. “They’re so fast with the ball. They’re so athletic, running in transition. For us tonight, if we missed a shot, it was a layup at the other end. Or they put us in a really bad spot defensively.
“They’re so fast in transition that they get you on your heels,” Jasick said. “When they can stop and make a 15-footer, that’s hard to guard.”
Aside from the decided athletic edge, FSU’s depth was just too much for the visitors. Hamilton sent 11 players at the Dolphins, often in waves, thanks to the return of Brandon and Bell to the rotation. Both sat out Sunday’s 109-62 season-opening win over Nicholls State.
“It gave us a few options that we weren’t able to have [Sunday],” Hamilton said. “We were not in a situation where we had to play guys extended minutes…We think this is a lot better.”
FSU stepped it up defensively after its slow start, scoring 10 points off six second half turnovers while cutting JU’s field goal percentage from 47 to 42 percent. Hamilton was especially pleased that his team came up with 25 deflections.
The improved finish was a welcome relief for a team breaking in five new players, especially on the heels of Jacksonville’s red-hot start.
Undeterred by its season-opening loss to Appalachian State, JU came out swinging – and connecting. The Dolphins made seven of their first nine shots, capped by White’s 3-pointer for a 19-8 lead at 15:43 in the first half.
Hamilton went to his bench at the first media timeout as the Seminole subs stemmed the tide with some defensive intensity, sparking a 9-1 run which trimmed the deficit to 20-17.
A pair of Bacon baskets, wrapped around a Bojanovsky dunk, put the Noles in front 30-29 with 7:33 to play. FSU closed the half on a 14-9 run and was on its way to a 19th consecutive victory over Jacksonville.
NO NAME GS MIN FGM FGA 3FGM 3FGA FTM FTA PTS OREB DREB REB PF AST TO BLK STL
== ==================== == === === === ==== ==== === === === ==== ==== === == === == === ===
0 Phil Cofer f 9 1 1 0 0 2 2 4 0 0 0 2 0 1 0 0
4 Dwayne Bacon g 30 10 18 3 5 4 6 27 3 6 9 0 2 3 0 1
5 Malik Beasley g 28 7 11 4 6 3 4 21 1 2 3 1 1 1 0 0
15 Boris Bojanovsky c 18 3 4 0 0 4 6 10 1 2 3 3 0 1 4 1
22 Xavier Rathan-Mayes g 26 5 11 1 5 2 3 13 0 3 3 2 5 2 0 1
1 Devon Bookert 23 3 7 1 5 0 0 7 1 3 4 0 4 3 0 2
3 Benji Bell 10 2 3 1 2 0 0 5 1 2 3 1 1 1 0 0
14 Terance Mann 13 1 2 0 0 0 1 2 1 4 5 3 2 1 0 0
21 Christ Koumadje 3 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 2 1 0 0 0 0
23 Jarquez Smith 18 2 3 0 0 0 2 4 1 1 2 3 0 0 1 1
32 Montay Brandon 22 2 3 0 0 1 2 5 1 2 3 2 2 0 0 0
Team 2 2
=========================================================================
FSU 5 200 36 63 10 23 16 26 98 10 29 39 18 17 13 5 6
Opp 200 29 65 9 23 12 21 79 11 20 31 22 12 13 3 6
| 1 | 2 | Total | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Jacksonville | |||
| Florida State |
From the FSU Website, seminoles.com.
Seminoles Fall, 82-77, To Hofstra In Paradise Jam.
ST THOMAS, VI – Junior guard Brian Bernardi scored 24 points on six of eight shooting from the 3-point line and Hofstra held on to defeat Florida State, 82-77, in the first round of the Paradise Jam at the Sports and Fitness Center at the University of the Virgin Islands. Bernardi paced the Pride to a 41-35 half time lead with 19 first half points – 15 of those came on five 3-pointers.
The Pride then maintained the lead in the second half despite Florida State cutting its deficit to two points at 77-75 on a 3-pointer by freshman Malik Beasley with 1:17 remaining. Hofstra made five of six free throws in the final 24 seconds to gain the win.
Hofstra improved to 3-0 and will play South Carolina in the second round of the eight-team tournament. Florida State fell to 2-1 and will face DePaul in Saturday at 6:30 p.m. South Carolina defeated DePaul 76-61.
Beasley led four Florida State players in double figures with 25 points. Also in double figures for the Seminoles were seniors Boris Bojanovsky and Devon Bookert and 11 points and sophomore Xavier Rathan-Mayes who totaled 10 points. Senior Montay Brandon led the Seminoles with seven rebounds.
“You have to give Hofstra credit,” said head coach Leonard Hamilton. “We had good looks at the basket; maybe better shots than what we had been making in our first couple of games. But you are going to have those nights. If we can learn from this – when our threes are not falling we need to take the ball to the basket – we will continue to improve and become a good basketball team.”
Florida State seized control of the game early and led by as many as five with just under four minutes elapsed in the first half.
Bernardi hit the first of his five first half threes at the 16:10 mark to draw Hofstra to within 12-9 and made his second at the 13:58 mark to bring the Pride to within two at 14-12. He gave Hofstra the lead for good with a lay-up at the 7:02 mark. His basket gave the Pride a 22-20 lead – a lead they did not relinquish for the remainder of the game.
Bernardi increased Hofstra’s lead to as many as nine in the first half on his fourth 3-point shot with 3:05 left before halftime. Hofstra’s lead at 34-25 would be the largest by either team during the game which saw four ties and five lead changes.
Florida State began to chip away at the Pride’s 41-35 halftime lead early in the second half.
Beasley, who scored 19 of his career-high 25 points after intermission, scored 11 of Florida State’s first 15 points of the half including a 3-pointer at the 13:00 mark to draw the Seminoles to within 53-50.
A lay-up by Bookert at the 11:49 mark drew Florida State to within one at 53-52. It was the first of three times in the second half that the Seminoles pulled within one but were never able to re-take the lead.
Florida State fell behind by nine at 72-63 with 5:19 before mounting its final comeback of the game.
After falling behind by nine, the Seminoles outscored the Pride by a 12-5 margin to pull within 77-75 on Beasley’s fourth 3-point shot of game with 1:17 left to play. Hofstra, though, held off the Seminoles from the free throw line to win the game. While the Pride scored five points in the final 24 seconds, the Seminoles managed only two Bookert free throws in falling for the first time this season.
Beasley’s 25 points is a career and marked the third consecutive game he has scored at least 20 point to begin his career. He is the first freshman in school history to score at least 20 points in the first three games of his career.
“Hofstra did what they had to do to win the game,” said Rathan-Mayes. “They made 10 3-point shots, outrebounded us, forced us into way too many turnovers and made us to take a lot of contested shots. Credit them but we will learn from this and be a better team moving forward.”
NO NAME GS MIN FGM FGA 3FGM 3FGA FTM FTA PTS OREB DREB REB PF AST TO BLK STL
== ==================== == === === === ==== ==== === === === ==== ==== === == === == === ===
0 Phil Cofer f 12 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 3 2 5 2 0 1 0 1
4 Dwayne Bacon g 25 3 9 0 3 3 5 9 1 2 3 4 1 1 0 1
5 Malik Beasley g 34 8 16 4 8 5 6 25 0 5 5 2 1 1 0 3
15 Boris Bojanovsky c 25 4 9 0 1 3 4 11 2 1 3 2 0 1 1 1
22 Xavier Rathan-Mayes g 31 4 14 1 6 1 1 10 2 2 4 3 4 4 0 0
1 Devon Bookert 18 4 9 1 4 2 2 11 1 1 2 3 1 1 0 1
3 Benji Bell 6 0 1 0 1 0 2 0 0 1 1 1 0 2 0 0
14 Terance Mann 5 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1
23 Jarquez Smith 15 1 5 0 2 1 1 3 0 1 1 2 1 1 2 3
32 Montay Brandon 29 3 5 0 0 2 4 8 3 4 7 1 1 0 0 1
Team 2 3 5
=========================================================================
FSU 5 200 27 68 6 25 17 25 77 14 22 36 20 9 12 3 12
Opp 200 27 58 10 22 18 24 82 9 30 39 23 17 16 2 8
| 1 | 2 | Total | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Florida State | |||
| Hofstra |
From the FSU Website, seminoles.com.
Seminoles Defeat DePaul, 83-67, At Paradise Jam.
ST THOMAS, VI – Freshmen Dwayne Bacon scored 19 points and Malik Beasley scored 11 to lead Florida State to an 83-67 victory over DePaul in the second round of the Paradise Jam at the Sports and Fitness Center at the University of the Virgin Islands. Bacon led the Seminoles in scoring for the third time and Beasley reached double figures for the fourth time in the first four games of the season as Florida State cruised to the win.
Florida State, which improved to 3-1, will play Ohio on Monday at 4:00 EST in the fourth-place game of the tournament. DePaul, which fell to 1-3, will play Norfolk State in the seventh place game on Monday at 1:30 EST.
Bacon and Beasley combined for 19 first half points to boost Florida State to as much as a 19-point lead before halftime. The Seminoles, who shot 70 percent from the field in the first half, broke the game open with a 28-9 run that put them up by a 38-19 margin with 3:30 left before halftime. Bacon scored seven points and Beasley six during the run after the teams played to a 10-10 tie in the first 7:33 of the game.
“I thought we moved the ball very well tonight,” said head coach Leonard Hamilton. “We still have some shortcomings on the defensive end but I thought our effort was there tonight. I still think we are growing and developing as a team and we are still trying to find ourselves. The key is to learn more about how you have to play, who we are and how we have to play to each other. I think that is what happened tonight.”
Florida State built its first half lead with ball movement and its highest first half field goal shooting percentage of the young season. The Seminoles made 14 of 20 first half field goals (.700 percent) and made four of six shots from the 3-point line (.667 percent) and limited the Blue Demons to .417 shooting from the field and only two made 3-point shots.
Bacon was perfect from the field in the first half (three of three), made his only 3-point attempt and was three of four from the free throw line in a very active half during which he scored 10 points. He scored more points in the first half of the Seminoles’ game against DePaul (10) than he did in 25 minutes of play against Hofstra on Friday. Florida State lost its first round game to Hofstra by an 82-77 score.
Bacon continued to play well in the second half as he totaled nine points as Florida State pushed its lead to as many as 24 points.
Sophomore guard Xavier Rathan-Mayes led Florida State with eight assists as the Seminoles totaled 13 assists on 27 baskets.
Senior guard Devon Bookert scored seven points as he continued to be a spark plug coming off the bench for the Seminoles. His play in the first half with five points, one assist and one steal helped the Seminoles extend their lead to a comfortable margin at halftime.
“The thing I was most pleased with was how we shared the ball throughout the game,” said Bookert. “We really wanted to play with energy and we did that tonight. Everyone was involved in the game, everyone was playing as hard as they could and we can see the results when we play that way. It’s not going to be the same person for our team every night and that’s a really good aspect of our team.”
Florida State led by as many as 24 and led by double figures for the final 25:42 as Hamilton played all 12 of his healthy players. A total of 11 players earned at least 11 minutes of playing time with no Seminole playing more than 25 minutes as Hamilton continued to utilize the Seminoles’ depth through the first four games of the season.
Blue Demon guard Aaron Simpson was a perfect 5-of-5 from the 3-point line to lead three DePaul players in double figures with 20 points. Guards Myke Henry scored 15 and Billy Garrett added 11 for the Blue Demons.
NO NAME GS MIN FGM FGA 3FGM 3FGA FTM FTA PTS OREB DREB REB PF AST TO BLK STL
== ==================== == === === === ==== ==== === === === ==== ==== === == === == === ===
4 Dwayne Bacon g 25 6 7 1 1 6 7 19 2 3 5 0 0 3 0 0
5 Malik Beasley g 23 3 7 1 3 4 4 11 1 4 5 2 1 1 0 0
15 Boris Bojanovsky c 11 0 2 0 0 2 2 2 0 0 0 3 0 4 0 0
22 Xavier Rathan-Mayes g 23 0 6 0 3 2 2 2 0 3 3 2 8 3 0 0
32 Montay Brandon f 20 2 5 0 1 3 6 7 2 2 4 2 0 2 0 2
0 Phil Cofer 14 3 3 0 0 0 0 6 0 1 1 1 1 0 1 0
1 Devon Bookert 20 3 5 1 2 0 0 7 0 1 1 2 1 0 0 1
3 Benji Bell 15 2 3 1 1 4 6 9 0 2 2 3 0 0 0 0
14 Terance Mann 20 3 4 0 0 1 3 7 2 2 4 0 2 2 0 1
21 Christ Koumadje 11 2 2 0 0 1 1 5 1 4 5 5 0 0 3 0
23 Jarquez Smith 14 3 4 1 1 1 2 8 1 1 2 2 0 2 0 1
31 Michael Saxton 4 0 3 0 3 0 0 0 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 0
Team 1 3 4
=========================================================================
FSU 5 200 27 51 5 15 24 33 83 10 27 37 22 13 17 4 5
Opp 200 25 55 7 17 10 23 67 10 19 29 27 9 16 1 1
| 1 | 2 | Total | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Florida State | |||
| DePaul |
From the FSU Website, seminoles.com.
Florida State Tops Ohio, 90-81, In Paradise Jam Finale.
ST THOMAS, VI – Florida State jumped out to a quick 16-4 lead and made 15 of 16 free throws in the final 5:54 to defeat Ohio 90-81 in the fourth place game at the Paradise Jam at the Sports and Fitness Center at the University of the Virgin Islands. The win gave Seminole head coach Leonard Hamilton his 240th win at Florida State and moved him into a tie for 10th place for career wins in ACC history with former Wake Forest head coach Dave Odom.
Florida State improved to 4-1 overall and finished the Paradise Jam with a 2-1 record. The Seminoles defeated both DePaul and Ohio after falling to Hofstra in the first round of the tournament.
The Seminoles scored the first five points of the game on a lay-up by Malik Beasley and a 3-point shot by Dwayne Bacon, scored 15 of the first 17 points and led 16-4 on a Bacon free throw at the 15:15 mark before Ohio was able to get into any rhythm on offense. The Seminoles made each of their first six shots and forced three early turnovers in taking their largest lead of the first half.
“I think we showed that we have some potential,” said Seminole head coach Leonard Hamilton. “I also think we have a ways to go in terms of sharpening up our defense. I think that we can develop. I was glad to see our effort was good, our execution on offense was better after our first game, our effort was certainly much better on defense after the first game but our execution on our defensive fundamentals were not were not as sharp as they need to be. I think, though, that we are making progress.”
Bacon (25 points) and Beasley (22) led four Seminoles in scoring as they both reached the 20 point plateau for the third time in the first five games of the season. It marked the third time Bacon scored at least 20 points in a game and the fourth time Beasley has scored at least 20 points in the first five games of their careers. Beasley was named the ACC Rookie of the Week on Monday – one week after Bacon earned the same honor.
“In the first five games of the season, Dwayne and Malik have shown that they are athletic, they are smart and that they are talented,” said Hamilton. “They have to continue to grow as most freshmen need to and must continue to improve defensively. But their effort is good, their attitude is good and I know they are going to continue growing and developing.”
Also in double figure scoring for Florida State were senior Boris Bojanovsky and sophomore Xavier Rathan-Mayes as both players scored 14 points. Rathan-Mayes led the Seminoles with six assists.
Florida State led for the entire first half and were ahead 45-38 at the half as they shot 64.3 percent from the field.
The Bobcats did not wilt under the pressure of playing an ACC team as they outscored the Seminoles 24-14 in the first 10 minutes of the second half and took their first lead of the game at 62-59 on a 3-point shot by Jordan Dartis at the 9:59 mark. Dartis led Ohio with 24 points on four made 3-point shots.
Florida State responded quickly and tied the game at 62-62 on Beasley’s second 3-point shot of the night at the 9:19 mark. The Seminoles then re-took the lead for good on a jumper by Bacon to put the Seminoles up 64-62. Florida State increased its lead to as many as three with 6:34 left to play at 73-66 on a lay-up by Rathan-Mayes.
From there it became a free throw shooting contest which allowed Florida State to close out the Bobcats.
During the final 5:56 of the game the Seminoles made 15 of 16 free throws to extend their lead to as many as 13 and eventually the final margin of nine points.
Bojanovsky, Beasley and senior Devon Bookert made four free throws each, Rathan-Mayes was a perfect on two shots and junior Benji Bell made one of two free throws as Florida State outscored Ohio 21-16 to gain the victory.
Senior Montay Brandon, who scored four points, blocked two shots and earned a key first half steal, stressed Florida State’s continuous need to grow as players.
“We learned a lot about ourselves in this game and in this tournament,” said Brandon. “We are improving each day and that’s what’s important. We have some time off before we play at Iowa and we have a lot of work to do before that game. But we are all excited at the direction we are moving in as players and as a team.”
NO NAME GS MIN FGM FGA 3FGM 3FGA FTM FTA PTS OREB DREB REB PF AST TO BLK STL
== ==================== == === === === ==== ==== === === === ==== ==== === == === == === ===
4 Dwayne Bacon g 34 9 15 3 4 4 6 25 3 4 7 1 1 2 0 2
5 Malik Beasley g 29 8 10 2 3 4 5 22 1 4 5 3 3 4 0 2
15 Boris Bojanovsky c 32 4 9 0 1 6 8 14 3 2 5 4 0 1 0 0
22 Xavier Rathan-Mayes g 31 6 11 0 2 2 2 14 0 3 3 2 6 2 0 2
32 Montay Brandon g 24 2 2 0 0 0 0 4 0 2 2 3 1 1 2 2
0 Phil Cofer 4 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 0
1 Devon Bookert 22 1 4 0 1 4 4 6 0 1 1 4 3 2 0 1
3 Benji Bell 3 0 0 0 0 3 4 3 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0
14 Terance Mann 13 0 1 0 0 0 2 0 0 4 4 2 0 0 1 0
21 Christ Koumadje 4 1 1 0 0 0 0 2 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 0
23 Jarquez Smith 4 0 3 0 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 0 1 0 0
Team 1 3 4
=========================================================================
FSU 5 200 31 57 5 13 23 31 90 8 25 33 22 14 13 3 9
Opp 200 27 54 10 24 17 26 81 8 19 27 23 14 18 4 1
| 1 | 2 | Total | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Florida State | |||
| Ohio |
From the FSU Website, seminoles.com.
Seminoles Fall to Iowa, 78-75, In Overtime.
IOWA CITY, IA – Iowa forward Peter Jok hit a 3-point shot from the left corner to give Iowa a 74-72 lead in overtime and the Hawkeyes hung on to defeat Florida State 78-75 in the final game of the 17th Annual ACC/Big Ten Challenge at Carver-Hawkeye Arena. The Hawkeyes’ victory over the Seminoles gave the Big Ten the challenge championship by an 8-6 margin.
Jok scored eight of Iowa’s 15 points in the overtime period including his game-winning 3-point shot with 26 seconds remaining in the game. His 3-point shot gave the Hawkeyes the lead after Florida State had taken a one point lead on one of two made free throws by Seminole guard Xavier Rathan-Mayes.
The five-minute overtime period featured six lead changes and two ties after the teams finished regulation tied at 63-63. The Seminoles forced overtime as forward Montay Brandon tied the game with two free throws with 27 seconds remaining to be played in regulation. Florida State’s Devon Bookert missed a game-winning shot from just after half court – a shot that bounded off the back of the rim as he nearly gave the Seminoles the win.
“I thought Iowa did a very good job of executing down the stretch,” said Seminole head coach Leonard Hamilton. “I thought their experience showed that they were a little more experienced than we were. I thought they got a lot of what they were looking for down the stretch and they made big shots.”
Florida State freshman guard Malik Beasley, who scored 20 points, led four Seminoles in double figure scoring. It mark the fifth time in the first six games of his career that he has scored at least 20 points. He entered the game as the second leading freshmen scorer in the nation and reached his scoring average for the year.
Also in double figures for Florida State were Rathan-Mayes with 15 points and senior Boris Bojanovsky and freshman Dwayne Bacon with 11 points each. Bacon entered the game as the nation’s leading freshman scorer and scored in double figures for the fifth time in the first six games of his career. Bojanovsky totaled his third career double double as he pulled down 11 rebounds to go with his 11 points.
The game was tightly contested throughout and saw the lead change 21 times and the score tied on nine different occasions. Florida State led by as many as nine in the first half but led by only one at 32-31 at halftime. Iowa led by as many as five in the second half but allowed the Seminoles to force overtime as they scored six of the final 10 points of the regulation to tie the score at 63-63.
Iowa scored the first point of the overtime period as Jok made one of two free throws at the 4:34 mark after he was fouled by Bacon of Florida State. The Seminoles quickly took the lead at 65-64 on a jumper by Beasley at the 4:27 mark but fell behind again on a dunk by Jok at the 4:06 mark. Jok’s dunk gave the Hawkeyes a 66-65 lead.
The lead changed in the Seminoles’ favor on a dunk by Bojanovsky that gave Florida State a 67-66 advantage.
Jok put Iowa up by a 68-67 margin with two free throws at the 3:31 mark before a Beasley lay-up at the 2:56 mark put Florida State back in front by a 69-68 score. An old fashioned 3-point play by Iowa’s Adam Woodbury put the Hawkeyes back up by a 71-69 margin at the 2:28 mark. Bojanovsky answered with a tip-in at the 2:02 mark to tie the game at 71-71 before Jok’s 3-point shot put Iowa up to stay.
Florida State won the rebounding margin by a 49-42 margin and held the Hawkeyes to 42 percent shooting from the field. The Seminoles recorded a positive assist to turnover ratio with 16 assists and only 14 turnovers but allowed Iowa to score 19 points off of their turnovers. Iowa totaled 11 points of turnovers in the second half and in overtime.
Jok led five Iowa players in double figures with his career-high of 24 points and a game-high four steals. Jarrod Uthoff scored 15, Woodbury added 14 and Antony Clemmons and Mike Gesell totaled 10 points each. Woodbury added 10 rebounds to go along with his 14 points.
"Our execution down the stretch was pretty good," said Iowa head coach Fran McCaffery. "We played the zone about as well as you could play it, but we couldn't get a rebound. They (Florida State) are so quick to the ball, and they were sending everybody late.
"We got the misses we needed, but they went back and got it. Some teams are really good in that area, so this game is really going to help us."
NO NAME GS MIN FGM FGA 3FGM 3FGA FTM FTA PTS OREB DREB REB PF AST TO BLK STL
== ==================== == === === === ==== ==== === === === ==== ==== === == === == === ===
4 Dwayne Bacon g 31 5 16 0 4 1 1 11 3 1 4 2 2 2 0 1
5 Malik Beasley g 29 8 17 2 6 2 2 20 2 6 8 4 0 1 0 0
15 Boris Bojanovsky c 31 3 5 0 0 5 6 11 6 5 11 2 3 0 1 0
22 Xavier Rathan-Mayes g 33 6 15 2 8 1 2 15 0 4 4 2 5 5 0 1
32 Montay Brandon g 32 1 3 0 0 2 2 4 2 6 8 4 0 2 0 0
0 Phil Cofer 11 1 2 0 0 0 0 2 0 2 2 0 0 1 0 1
1 Devon Bookert 27 2 7 1 5 0 0 5 0 1 1 3 6 1 0 2
3 Benji Bell 5 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0
14 Terance Mann 15 1 4 0 0 1 2 3 3 2 5 2 0 0 1 0
21 Christ Koumadje 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0
23 Jarquez Smith 10 2 6 0 0 0 0 4 1 3 4 2 0 1 0 0
Team 2 2
=========================================================================
FSU 5 225 29 76 5 23 12 15 75 19 30 49 22 16 14 2 5
Opp 225 27 64 5 21 19 26 78 12 30 42 17 15 12 4 9
| 1 | 2 | OT | Total | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Florida State | ||||
| Iowa |
From the FSU Website, seminoles.com.
Florida State Defeats VCU, 76-71, Behind Rathan-Mayes’ 23 Points.
ATLANTA, GA – Sophomore Xavier Rathan-Mayes scored his season-high of 23 points and Florida State held off a second half charge to defeat VCU, 76-71, in a game played at Philips Arena. Rathan-Mayes scored four of the Seminoles’ final six points of the game from the free throw line to help ice the game for the Seminoles.
VCU was led by guard Melvin Johnson who scored a career-high 36 points on eight made 3-point shots to lead the Rams. The Rams trailed by as many as 14 in the first half but rallied to take a one-point lead with 6:01 remaining in the game. After trailing by 11 at the half, VCU outscored the Seminoles by a 31-19 margin in the first 14 minutes of the second half to take a 60-59 lead on a 3-ponter by Johnson.
Following Johnson’s bucket to give VCU the lead at the 6:01 mark, Florida State outscored the Rams by a 17-11 margin to close the game. The Seminoles regained the lead on a tip-in by senior Boris Bojanovsky and never relinquished the lead again in gaining the important non-conference victory.
“I thought our defense made up for our lack of offensive execution,” said Seminole head coach Leonard Hamilton. “We had 13 deflections and 11 steals which gave us a chance to get a little cushion. I thought our offense was very inconsistent. I think their constant changing defense got us a little out of synch but our defense kept them at bay."
Rathan-Mayes scored five of Florida States’ first seven points including a 3-point shot at the 16:10 mark as the Seminoles jumped to a 7-2 lead.
VCU rallied and took its first lead of the game, 11-9, on Johnson’s first 3-pointer of the game at the 13:32 mark. The Seminoles scored the next four points on a layup by junior Jarquez Smith (six points and six rebounds) and a dunk by freshman forward Dwayne Bacon (10 points and two rebounds).
From there the Seminoles quickly increased their lead to double figures for the first time in the game on a dunk by Atlanta-area native Malik Beasley (10 pints and three steals) to make the score 32-21. The Seminoles increased their lead to as many as 14 (37-23) on two free throws by another Atlanta product Phil Cofer.
Florida State scored the final three points of the half on a lay-up by freshman Terance Mann to make the score 39-29. Mann closed out the half with one of two free throws to give the Seminoles a 40-29 halftime advantage.
VCU struck quickly in the second half to get themselves back into the game.
Johnson, who scored 23 of his 36 points in the second half, made nine of his 14 field goal attempts and five of his eight 3-point shot attempts after halftime to lead the Rams back into the game. In 37 minutes of play, Johnson scored his 36 points, pulled down three rebounds, was credited with three assists and earned two steals.
“In the second half, they revved it up, made some plays and obviously had a kid (Johnson) that was on fire,” said Hamilton. “He got on fire from the perimeter and he made it very difficult for us … but we made some big plays and gave ourselves the opportunity to extend our lead. What gave us the win at the end were some of those deflections and steals.”
Guard Jordan Burgess began the Rams’ comeback as he scored the first basket of the second half – a 3-pointer to draw his team to within eight at 40-32.
In a 10 minute span from the 16:14 mark to the 6:01 mark, the Rams outscored Florida State by 12 to take their first lead since the 13:13 mark of the first half. Johnson was the Ram’s go-to guy during their run as he scored 10 points on four baskets including his fifth made 3-point shot of the game.
Bojanovsky’s lay-up at the 5:33 mark put the Seminoles up 61-60 and a tip-in by Mann at the 5:11 mark put Florida State up 63-60 but another 3-pointer by Johnson at the 4:20 mark tied the game at 63-63.
Rathan-Mayes answered Johnson’s three with a three of his own for what proved to be the game-winning basket for Florida State. His basket put the Seminoles up 66-63.
The Seminoles were then six of six from the free throw line (four by Rathan-Mayes and two by Mann) to close out the victory.
Florida State totaled three players in double figures (Rathan-Mayes, Bacon and Beasley) and outrebounded VCU by a 39-32 margin. Led by Mann’s nine points, the Seminoles earned a 24-4 margin in bench points with nine of the 11 Seminoles who earned playing time scoring at least four points.
Florida State, who had a decided height-advantage, outscored the Rams by a 42-30 margin on points in the paint and blocked eight shots (six by Bojanovsky and one each by Beasley and Smith). Rathan-Mayes led the Seminoles with seven rebounds.
Despite turning the ball over 19 times, the Seminoles handled VCU’s pressure well as most of their turnovers were not of the live ball variety. Florida State gave up only 14 points off of turnovers while earning 13 steals and capitalizing on VCU’s turnovers with 17 points off of those turnovers.
Florida State also shot the ball well from the free throw line as they made 13 of 16 for the game (.813 percent) including seven of eight (.875) in the second half. The Seminoles made their final seven free throws of the game.
Florida State’s Atlanta area natives totaled 20 points (10 by Beasley, Alpharetta; six by Smith, Haddock and four by Cofer, Atlanta), 10 rebounds and five steals as all three played in font of numerous family members and friends. Beasley, who played in his home area for the first time as a collegian, played in front of many of his former high school teammates from Saint Francis Academy in Alpharetta.
The Seminoles also totaled 13 steals – the third time they reached double figures in steals in their first seven games of the season.
NO NAME GS MIN FGM FGA 3FGM 3FGA FTM FTA PTS OREB DREB REB PF AST TO BLK STL
== ==================== == === === === ==== ==== === === === ==== ==== === == === == === ===
4 Dwayne Bacon g 24 5 10 0 1 0 0 10 0 2 2 1 1 5 0 0
5 Malik Beasley g 27 5 10 0 1 0 0 10 1 1 2 0 1 1 1 3
15 Boris Bojanovsky c 22 2 3 0 0 0 0 4 2 3 5 3 2 3 6 3
22 Xavier Rathan-Mayes g 38 7 13 4 5 5 6 23 1 6 7 2 4 2 0 3
32 Montay Brandon g 21 1 5 0 0 3 4 5 1 1 2 2 2 2 0 0
0 Phil Cofer 8 1 2 0 0 2 2 4 0 2 2 1 0 1 0 2
1 Devon Bookert 27 2 8 1 5 0 0 5 0 3 3 1 4 0 0 2
3 Benji Bell 3 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 0 0
14 Terance Mann 14 3 6 0 0 3 4 9 3 2 5 1 1 2 0 0
21 Christ Koumadje 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 0
23 Jarquez Smith 16 3 7 0 1 0 0 6 3 3 6 0 1 1 1 0
Team 3 1 4 1
=========================================================================
FSU 5 200 29 64 5 13 13 16 76 14 25 39 12 16 19 8 13
Opp 200 27 63 10 19 7 8 71 11 22 33 17 12 20 5 10
| 1 | 2 | Total | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Florida State | |||
| VA Commonwealth |
From the FSU Website, seminoles.com.
Bell's 18 Points Lead Seminoles Past Southeastern Louisiana 75-58.
By Tim Linafelt, Seminoles.com Senior Writer
TALLAHASSEE, FL – Having just wrapped up final exams, the Florida State men’s basketball team passed a few more tests on Sunday afternoon.
The Seminoles overcame an early deficit, withstood a late rally and got strong contributions from some new sources in a 75-58 victory over Southeastern Louisiana.
With top scorers Xavier Rathan-Mayes and Dwayne Bacon mostly quiet around the basket and senior Devon Bookert sidelined by a sprained wrist, junior guard Benji Bell stepped in and had his finest game in a Seminole uniform.
A junior college transfer from Gainesville, Bell led the Seminoles with a career-high 18 points on 5 of 6 shooting, made four 3-pointers and grabbed four rebounds in 26 minutes, by far his most significant action of the season.
Freshman Malik Beasley added another 16 points for FSU, 12 of which came after halftime.
“It was kind of one of those games where you just have to grind it out,” FSU coach Leonard Hamilton said.
The Seminoles (6-2) erased an early six-point deficit and a rough shooting effort in the first half to post their third-largest margin of victory this season.
That’s thanks in large part to Bell, who despite not garnering the same type of national headlines as FSU’s freshman trio of Bacon, Beasley and Terance Mann, arrived in Tallahassee this season with an impressive pedigree of his own.
In his sophomore year at Northwest Florida State College in Niceville, Bell averaged nearly 18 points per game on the way to All-America honors and a JUCO national championship.
The learning curve can between junior college and Division I basketball can be steep, Hamilton said. But Bell seemed to have adjusted just fine on Sunday.
“Benji came in, gave us a good lift,” Hamilton said. “… Now he's more comfortable, he's making pretty good decisions. He's not hesitant. He's not thinking, he's reacting. And I think that's why he was able to contribute as well as he did today.”
Bell shot 83.3 percent from the floor, including a perfect 4-for-4 from beyond the arc, while nearly quadrupling his average minutes per game (from 7.0 to 26).
And his 18 total points were more than he had scored during FSU’s previous seven games combined.
“I knew today was going to be an opportunity to showcase what I can do,” Bell said.
“Because (Bookert) was out, so I pretty much knew how the lineup was probably going to go.
“But I didn’t know that I was going to do what I did tonight.”
His teammates were awfully glad that he did.
Bacon, who came into the contest averaging 17.7 points per game, had what Hamilton called a “tough day,” first catching a ball to the eye during the pre-game shoot around, and then catching two fouls early in the game.
He finished with a season-low two points in just 22 minutes.
And while Rathan-Mayes had a productive day as a distributor – he tied a career high with 11 assists – he also finished with seven points and attempted only six shots.
Those types of days, Rathan-Mayes said, will happen. Which is why it was so encouraging to see a player like Bell take an opportunity and run with it.
“It’s the next man up mentality,” Rathan-Mayes said. “It’s going to be someone different every night. And Benji was the guy that stepped in for us and did a great job for us tonight. He gave us a lift off the bench.”
He wasn’t the only one, either.
Forty-one of FSU’s 75 points came from non-starters, including a season-high nine from Phil Cofer, seven from Mann and three from Jarquez Smith.
Each of FSU’s 11 players to record a minute scored at least one basket.
“I'm very pleased that we were able to come away with a victory,” Hamilton said. “We're still a work in progress. I looked out there several times and we had four first-year players, and that's challenging for any coach this time of year. But these (games) give us an opportunity to grow.”
NO NAME GS MIN FGM FGA 3FGM 3FGA FTM FTA PTS OREB DREB REB PF AST TO BLK STL
== ==================== == === === === ==== ==== === === === ==== ==== === == === == === ===
4 Dwayne Bacon g 22 1 6 0 2 0 0 2 0 2 2 3 2 0 0 1
5 Malik Beasley g 30 5 15 0 4 6 7 16 3 5 8 1 2 2 0 1
15 Boris Bojanovsky c 15 1 4 0 1 3 4 5 2 2 4 0 0 0 1 0
22 Xavier Rathan-Mayes g 31 2 6 1 4 2 2 7 0 2 2 3 11 2 0 0
32 Montay Brandon g 20 2 2 0 0 0 0 4 0 3 3 1 0 2 0 1
0 Phil Cofer 14 2 3 0 0 5 6 9 1 1 2 0 1 1 0 0
3 Benji Bell 26 5 6 4 4 4 6 18 1 3 4 1 1 0 0 1
14 Terance Mann 20 2 5 0 1 3 4 7 4 2 6 0 0 1 0 0
21 Christ Koumadje 7 1 3 0 0 0 0 2 0 2 2 3 0 0 1 0
23 Jarquez Smith 13 1 2 0 1 1 2 3 1 1 2 1 0 1 1 1
31 Michael Saxton 2 1 3 0 2 0 0 2 1 1 2 0 0 0 0 0
Team 2 2
=========================================================================
FSU 5 200 23 55 5 19 24 31 75 13 26 39 13 17 9 3 5
Opp 200 22 53 8 20 6 11 58 8 23 31 21 9 16 3 4
| 1 | 2 | Total | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Southeastern LA | |||
| Florida State |
From the FSU Website, seminoles.com.
Florida State Tops Mississippi State 90-66.
TALLAHASSEE, FL – Freshmen Dwayne Bacon, Jr. and Malik Beasley filled up the highlight reel in Florida State’s 90-66 runaway win over Mississippi State Wednesday night, but only after a cast of veteran Seminoles bent on avenging last season’s road loss to the Bulldogs, helped turn the tables.
Seniors Devon Bookert and Boris Bojanovsky keyed an 11-0 first half run as the Seminoles, who trailed by as many as seven at one point, built a 29-23 lead that they never relinquished. Bookert’s 3-pointer from the left wing tied the game and freshman Terance Mann’s putback basket with 5:24 remaining gave the Noles a 25-23 lead.
“If we’re going to reach out potential, it’s going to be because of the quality of our depth,” said FSU coach Leonard Hamilton, who substituted liberally in the first half. “We needed some of the guys who were not necessarily starting to put forth the kind of energy and effort that will wear on your opponent…
“The residual effect is what happens in the second half when now we’re fresher, because your starters haven’t played major minutes.”
It proved to be the perfect recipe for the Seminoles (7-2) to record their third consecutive win; a first this season.
The game-turning run began with a pair of free throws by sophomore Phil Cofer and concluded with Bojanovsky draining a pair of free throws and Bookert dropping a floater from the lane. Bojanovsky was the lone starter on the floor when the Noles put together the decisive run, which they capped by scoring the final six points of the half for a 37-28 lead.
Bacon and Beasley took over in the second half against the foul-plagued and fatigued Bulldogs (4-5), who never got closer than seven points over the final 20 minutes. Bacon scored 16 of his game-high 20 points after intermission and Beasley contributed 13 of his 17 after the break.
“I thought their defensive pressure gave us trouble all night long,” said first-year Mississippi State coach Ben Howland. “I thought we played really hard. We just ran out of gas. You could see our guys cramping.”
Beasley and Xavier Rathan-Mayes (13 points), each contributed 10 rebounds, marking the first time the Noles had a pair of double-doubles in a game since Dec. 25, 2010, when Bernard James and Chris Singleton pulled off the feat against Baylor in Hawaii.
Contributions to the win came from all corners for the Noles, who got 11 points from Bojanovsky and outscored the Bulldogs’ bench 27-11. FSU’s commanding 46-32 rebounding advantage contributed to a 23-12 edge in second-chance points.
Mann led the reserves with eight points and Bookert chipped in seven.
Last season’s 62-55 loss to Mississippi State was clearly on Bojanovsky’s mind when the night began, and the senior center carried the load early.
“It definitely played a big role,” Bojanovsky said of the loss a year ago in Starkville. “It was an important game for us last year and we lost it…We kept talking about it. We didn’t want to lose to them again.
“We started out slow and I was trying to be a little more aggressive. I got a little tired in the second half…I’m glad I could keep us in the game in the beginning, until we got a lead. Then Dwayne and Malik started playing well. That’s what we needed.”
Mississippi State was hanging tough midway through the second half when Beasley broke things open for good with back-to-back 3-pointers on assists from Bojanovsky and junior Jarquez Smith as the Noles opened up a 55-42 lead with 12:49 to play.
Bacon followed with a scoring spurt of his own, scoring 13 points in a six-minute burst as the Noles pushed their lead to 77-55 on a Rathan-Mayes 3-pointer with 5:21 to play.
“Me and Dwayne were holding back,” Beasley said of the first half. “We know we were because we wanted to make sure the other players were getting the ball. Boris was killing it early so we wanted to get him the ball…In the second half we wanted to be a little more aggressive because they weren’t looking at us. They were looking at Boris. That’s how I got two open 3’s.”
On a night when more than a dozen NBA scouts turned out to see the Seminoles’ freshman tandem and touted Mississippi State frosh Malik Newman, Bacon and Beasley stole the show.
“They are special,” Howland said. “They’re both really long and really athletic. What I really like about them is they play really hard...They will be a real factor in the ACC.”
Especially if they are able to build on what was an improved defensive effort by the young Noles. Mississippi State shot just 38.7-percent from the floor; the lowest field goal percentage by an FSU opponent since the opener against Nicholls State.
“We showed progress tonight,” Hamilton said. “A couple days ago our defense was not quite as sharp. We’re learning from watching film and evaluating ourselves…They’re growing up a little bit, learning and accepting it. We showed signs of moving in the right direction tonight.”
NO NAME GS MIN FGM FGA 3FGM 3FGA FTM FTA PTS OREB DREB REB PF AST TO BLK STL
== ==================== == === === === ==== ==== === === === ==== ==== === == === == === ===
4 Dwayne Bacon g 26 7 12 0 2 6 8 20 1 5 6 2 2 1 1 0
5 Malik Beasley g 30 5 11 2 5 5 6 17 2 8 10 1 1 2 0 2
15 Boris Bojanovsky c 25 2 2 0 0 7 9 11 2 4 6 2 1 0 1 0
22 Xavier Rathan-Mayes g 29 5 9 1 3 2 2 13 2 8 10 3 4 3 0 0
32 Montay Brandon g 14 1 2 0 0 0 0 2 1 1 2 1 0 0 0 0
0 Phil Cofer 8 0 1 0 0 2 2 2 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 0
1 Devon Bookert 17 3 8 1 4 0 0 7 1 1 2 0 3 0 0 1
3 Benji Bell 19 1 7 0 5 2 2 4 0 2 2 1 0 2 0 2
14 Terance Mann 16 4 5 0 0 0 1 8 2 1 3 2 0 1 0 2
21 Christ Koumadje 7 1 2 0 0 2 6 4 0 0 0 2 0 1 0 0
23 Jarquez Smith 5 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 3 1 3 0 0
31 Michael Saxton 4 1 4 0 1 0 0 2 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 0
Team 2 2
=========================================================================
FSU 5 200 30 63 4 20 26 36 90 14 32 46 17 12 13 2 7
Opp 200 24 62 6 24 12 16 66 8 24 32 26 5 15 1 4
| 1 | 2 | Total | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mississippi State | |||
| Florida State |
From the FSU Website, seminoles.com.
Bacon’s 23 Points Leads Florida State Over FAU, 64-59.
SUNRISE, FL -- The game between Florida State and Florida Atlantic has been delayed twice because of problems with the basket at one end of the court.
The delays occurred during the first game of the one-day Orange Bowl Classic on Saturday.
Tipoff was 40 minutes late because the basket was too low and workers had trouble adjusting it. Less than four minutes into the game, an attempted dunk by Florida State's Monday left the rim too low and at an angle, which caused a 15-minute delay.
Florida State shot 26 percent aiming at the troublesome hoop, and 50 percent at the other end in the second half.
"You can't blame the rim," Bacon said. "I just kept telling the shooter that we have on our team to keep shooting, one is going to fall. You just have to keep shooting."
The Seminoles (8-2) won their season-best fourth in a row. Florida Atlantic (2-9) has lost four consecutive games, all on the road.
"We are here to change this program around," Owls second-year coach Michael Curry said. "Playing close is not going to be what FAU is about. But it also shows a lot of progress that we come out and play teams, especially on a neutral court. We are pleased with our guys' effort."
Bacon went 9 for 15 and was chosen the game's most valuable player. He had four of the Seminoles' 10 steals, and their defensive pressure made the difference down the stretch.
The score was tied at 56 before Florida State took advantage of back-to-back steals to score twice in nine seconds.
Malik Beasley hit a dunk on a breakaway, and Bacon made a steal on the inbound play and scored.
"We got stops, big-time stops," Bacon said.
Two baskets by Xavier Rathan-Mayes helped seal the victory for the Seminoles, who sank their final five shots.
"We made some adjustments at halftime, mentally and emotionally," coach Leonard Hamilton said.
Even so, the Seminoles' point total was a season low and 22 below their season average. They shot a season-worst 2 for 14 from 3-point range.
Beasley had 11 points and 10 rebounds. Rathan-Mayes had 12 points, four assists and three steals.
Marquan Botley led the Owls with 13 points, and C.J. Turman had 10 points and 15 rebounds.
The game was played at the Florida Panthers' arena, where hockey is the primary sport and the baskets are seldom used. The Seminoles missed 11 of their first 12 attempts at the troublesome basket, with the only score coming because of goaltending.
Florida Atlantic shot 54 percent in the first half and 32 percent at the hoop that caused the two delays.
Florida State scored 11 consecutive points to tie the game at 44 on a 3-pointer by Rathan-Mayes. Beasley's three-point play gave the Seminoles their first lead at 47-45.
NO NAME GS MIN FGM FGA 3FGM 3FGA FTM FTA PTS OREB DREB REB PF AST TO BLK STL
== ==================== == === === === ==== ==== === === === ==== ==== === == === == === ===
4 Dwayne Bacon g 31 9 15 0 3 5 7 23 0 3 3 3 1 7 0 4
5 Malik Beasley g 30 4 9 0 2 3 3 11 2 8 10 1 0 0 0 0
15 Boris Bojanovsky c 16 0 2 0 0 4 6 4 3 4 7 4 1 1 3 1
22 Xavier Rathan-Mayes g 29 4 10 2 4 2 4 12 0 2 2 1 4 0 0 3
32 Montay Brandon g 32 1 5 0 0 2 2 4 4 1 5 3 0 0 0 1
0 Phil Cofer 12 1 4 0 0 0 0 2 0 1 1 0 0 0 1 0
1 Devon Bookert 25 3 9 0 4 2 2 8 3 1 4 1 1 1 1 1
3 Benji Bell 4 0 2 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0
14 Terance Mann 8 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 2 2 0 1 0 0
21 Christ Koumadje 4 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 0 0 0 1 0
23 Jarquez Smith 9 0 2 0 0 0 0 0 2 3 5 2 0 1 2 0
Team 2 2 1
=========================================================================
FSU 5 200 22 59 2 14 18 24 64 14 28 42 17 8 12 8 10
Opp 200 23 53 5 14 8 14 59 8 27 35 17 14 15 1 2
| 1 | 2 | Total | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Florida State | |||
| Florida Atlantic |
From the FSU Website, seminoles.com.
Bacon's Double-Double Leads FSU Past Charleston Southern.
By Tim Linafelt, Seminoles.com Senior Writer
TALLAHASSEE, FL – The Florida State men’s basketball team gave coach Leonard Hamilton an early Christmas gift of sorts on Monday afternoon: A double-digit victory, a season-long winning streak and plenty of room for improvement between now and its next game.
Dwayne Bacon, who was named the ACC Rookie of the Week for the second time on Monday, had 20 points and 10 rebounds for his first career double-double, and Malik Beasley added 16 points and six boards as the Seminoles topped Charleston Southern, 75-64, in a matinee at the Donald L. Tucker Center.
FSU overcame 18 turnovers and a 3-for-17 effort from 3-point range to improve to 9-2 on the season.
“This was one of those games where we had a rash of turnovers and it seemed like it kept going for the entire game,” FSU coach Leonard Hamilton said. “We’ve been handling the ball well and been having good assist-to-turnover ratios, but today wasn’t one of those days. We couldn’t seem to control the ball. We continued to not shoot the ball well from the perimeter.
“That is something I think we can correct.”
Hamilton and the Seminoles have plenty of time to sort things out. They’re off the next few days for Christmas but don’t have another game until Dec. 29 at Florida.
After that, ACC play begins with a visit to Clemson on Jan. 2.
“We're in a good spot,” said Bacon, who scored at least 20 points for the third consecutive game.
“We could have been 11-0, but I feel like we're still in a good spot. We come back, we play Florida. We just have to lay it all on the line and get that win. We want to go into conference play 10-2.”
Led by their dynamic freshman duo of Bacon and Beasley, the Seminoles have flashed loads of potential throughout the season.
But at times on Monday, FSU looked like a young team fighting its way through an unusual tip-off time, as well as the effects of playing four games in eight days.
After building a quick 10-3 lead, the Seminoles sputtered a bit and allowed CSU to stay within single digits for the rest of the first half.
FSU led just 34-31 at halftime, and the Buccaneers actually claimed a 37-36 advantage early in the second half before Bacon took control during the game’s final 12 minutes.
The Lakeland native scored 14 of his 20 points in the second half, including a dominant stretch where he scored 10 of 12 FSU points.
Three times, Bacon grabbed a defensive rebound then went the length of the floor, through the Charleston Southern defense for a quick basket.
“In transition, I know it’s either a bucket or he’s passing to someone that’s scoring,” Beasley said. “With him getting rebounds and going coast-to-coast, it’s crazy. I love watching him play.”
It didn’t hurt that Charleston Southern shot 37 3-pointers connected on just 11.
All of those misses often led to long rebounds, which the Seminoles could easily corral and get moving down the court.
“That's the best offensive transition team that I've seen on film or in person,” CSU coach Barclay Radebaugh said. “They have made a commitment on the offensive end to run. And they ran.”
Radenbaugh has seen plenty of Hamilton’s FSU teams – they’ve met five times during his tenure at Charleston Southern – and he believes that this year’s version could end up the best.
Time will soon tell. With their non-conference tune-ups out of the way, FSU’s schedule should get difficult in a hurry.
The Seminoles have back-to-back road games against Florida (7-3) and Clemson (7-4) before returning home to face No. 7 North Carolina (9-2).
Until then, Hamilton is happy to have a few days to rest and regroup.
“We need this (break),” he said. “Mentally, emotionally as well as physically.”
NO NAME GS MIN FGM FGA 3FGM 3FGA FTM FTA PTS OREB DREB REB PF AST TO BLK STL
== ==================== == === === === ==== ==== === === === ==== ==== === == === == === ===
4 Dwayne Bacon g 26 8 14 0 2 4 4 20 0 10 10 1 1 0 0 0
5 Malik Beasley g 23 5 12 2 5 4 6 16 2 4 6 3 1 1 0 1
15 Boris Bojanovsky c 10 2 2 0 0 0 0 4 0 0 0 2 0 1 1 0
22 Xavier Rathan-Mayes g 24 2 8 1 5 1 2 6 1 3 4 2 5 5 0 2
32 Montay Brandon g 23 1 3 0 0 0 0 2 1 2 3 1 2 2 0 2
0 Phil Cofer 15 1 2 0 0 2 3 4 1 1 2 0 0 1 1 0
1 Devon Bookert 28 1 6 0 4 4 5 6 0 3 3 1 2 2 0 4
3 Benji Bell 14 2 3 0 1 0 0 4 0 2 2 0 1 2 0 0
14 Terance Mann 18 0 1 0 0 1 2 1 2 2 4 0 1 0 0 0
21 Christ Koumadje 3 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
23 Jarquez Smith 16 5 7 0 0 2 2 12 2 4 6 1 1 4 1 0
Team 1 1
=========================================================================
FSU 5 200 27 58 3 17 18 24 75 9 32 41 11 14 18 3 9
Opp 200 24 63 11 37 5 8 64 6 21 27 19 10 16 2 3
| 1 | 2 | Total | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Charleston Southern | |||
| Florida State |
From the FSU Website, seminoles.com.
Bacon Sizzles as Noles Defeat Gators.
By: Billy Clark, Sports Information Intern
GAINESVILLE, FL - Coach Leonard Hamilton wanted to enter conference play with this young Seminole team having as much experience under their belts as possible. On Tuesday night, the Florida State Men’s Basketball team got that and more, invading enemy waters and leaving the Stephen C. O’Connell Center with a win.
Lead by freshman guard Dwayne Bacon’s 24 points, the Seminoles (10-2) defeated the University of Florida Gators (8-4) on their home floor, 73-71, as Bacon hit a game-winning, go-ahead ten-footer with less than five seconds remaining.
With just 1:13 left in the game, an official review gave the Seminoles possession of the ball.
Bacon drove the lane and was unable to finish, giving Florida the ball back. Out of a timeout with 43.2 seconds on the clock, Florida’s KeVaughn Allen missed a three point attempt, and the ensuing foul put Florida State in the bonus.
Malik Beasley shot the one-and-one, splitting the two shots, allowing Florida’s Dorian Finney-Smith to tie the game at 71 on the next possession.
But with 4.6 seconds left on the clock, Bacon pulled up and hit a mid-range jumper that put the Seminoles back up for good, 73-71.
After the 19:34 mark in the first half, the Seminoles did not trail, taking control of the game from the opening tip.
Early on, fantastic freshman Bacon set the tone with two athletic drives to rim as the Noles got out to a 6-2 lead. Shortly afterward, he limped off the court and was taken to locker room for a brief time, but quickly returned and showed no ill effects.
Bacon, coming off two consecutive ACC Rookie of the Week honors, has been sensational of late. He continued his scoring onslaught, scoring 24 points and grabbing 5 rebounds while shooting 52 percent from the floor.
"He seems to be growing up and making leaps and bounds in his confidence and his ability to make plays," said Coach Hamilton on Bacon.
"Every shot he made tonight was very important."
Most would agree.
He not only showed his usual burst to the rim, but also hit five of his eight three point attempts. Bacon’s strong game as an outside shooter has helped key the Seminole offense and got them to the rim against a solid Florida defense.
"They kept making adjustments to everything we tried to do defensively," said Coach Hamilton after the game. "This was a very good basketball team that we were successful against tonight."
Veteran point guard Devon Bookert, coming off a wrist injury earlier this month, hit a three pointer as time expired in the first half to put the Noles up 41-31 at the break. The Noles shot 50% from the floor, including 45% from behind the arc in the opening half. In the game, Bookert was able to return to form shooting 3-7 from three and adding 11 critical points for the Seminoles.
Florida’s own outstanding freshman guard KeVaughn Allen was sensational, scoring a game-high 32 points, even forcing FSU to go to a zone defense at times. However, he cooled off in the second half, at one point missing five straight shots and allowing the Noles to stave off a strong Gator comeback.
Coach Hamilton showed the Seminoles’ depth throughout the contest, regularly making wholesale changes to the lineup, especially at guard and center, as he has done all season long thus far.
While FSU big men Boris Bojanovsky, Jarquez Smith, and Chris Koumadje got in foul trouble early, Florida had a rough night from the free throw line and were unable to capitalize, going 9-16 from the line in the first half. After early fouls on veterans Bojanovsky and Smith, freshman Koumadje was forced to play the majority of the first half with three early fouls of his own. He held steady with three points and four rebounds, as well as an emphatic block on Florida’s Dorian Finney-Smith.
In the second half, Bojanovsky returned to the game and threw in three boards while playing for much of the rest of the game.
Despite large deficits, UF’s competitive team rallied to tie the game toward the end of both halves. UF’s Allen tied the game at 31 on a breakaway dunk with 2:42 in the first half, which got the crowd back into the game. Things quieted again once Bacon hit a three pointer from the top of the key on the following possession.
With 10:41 in the second half, the Gators closed a double-digit gap while going on an 8-0 run, eventually halted by a dunk from FSU’s Terance Mann.
Florida actually outrebounded the Noles 43-36, but Florida State was efficient enough with their possessions, and outshot Florida 41% to just 16% from three to keep a safe lead for almost the entire game. The young Seminoles were able to answer every run that Florida made on the night.
NO NAME GS MIN FGM FGA 3FGM 3FGA FTM FTA PTS OREB DREB REB PF AST TO BLK STL
== ==================== == === === === ==== ==== === === === ==== ==== === == === == === ===
4 Dwayne Bacon g 34 9 17 5 8 1 2 24 2 3 5 3 2 2 0 2
5 Malik Beasley g 26 3 11 0 4 4 5 10 0 4 4 1 2 0 0 0
15 Boris Bojanovsky c 15 0 3 0 0 0 0 0 1 2 3 3 1 2 1 1
22 Xavier Rathan-Mayes g 30 4 11 1 2 2 2 11 0 6 6 3 3 2 0 0
32 Montay Brandon g 26 2 4 1 1 2 2 7 3 2 5 2 1 1 0 0
1 Devon Bookert 26 4 8 3 7 0 0 11 0 0 0 0 0 2 0 1
3 Benji Bell 7 1 2 0 1 0 0 2 0 0 0 1 4 1 0 1
14 Terance Mann 11 2 3 0 0 0 0 4 0 3 3 1 0 0 0 0
21 Christ Koumadje 18 1 3 0 0 1 2 3 0 4 4 3 0 2 1 0
23 Jarquez Smith 7 0 1 0 1 1 2 1 0 0 0 4 0 1 0 0
Team 2 4 6
=========================================================================
FSU 5 200 26 63 10 24 11 15 73 8 28 36 21 13 13 2 5
Opp 200 24 60 4 25 19 29 71 12 31 43 14 11 12 5 7
| 1 | 2 | Total | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Florida State | |||
| Florida |
From the FSU Website, seminoles.com.
Beasley Tallies 23 in Tough Road Loss to Clemson.
GREENVILLE, SC -- Jordan Roper scored 23 points and shot 7-of-10 on 3-pointers to lead Clemson to an 84-75 win over Florida State on Saturday.
The Tigers (8-6, 1-1 ACC) led for nearly the entire game, but the Seminoles (10-3, 0-1) tied it at 54 after Devon Bookert was fouled on a three, making the shot and the free throw.
Clemson then went on a 14-5 run that included Roper's final 3-pointer of the game, which put the Tigers up 63-56 with 5:27 to go.
Roper's seven 3-pointers were a career high.
Sidy Djitte added 14 points for Clemson, including making 8 of his 10 free throws as Florida State started fouling early. The junior also had nine rebounds.
Malik Beasley, one of the two freshman starts for the Seminoles, led Florida State with 23 points. Bookert added 21 points, shooting 6-of-9 on 3-pointers.
NO NAME GS MIN FGM FGA 3FGM 3FGA FTM FTA PTS OREB DREB REB PF AST TO BLK STL
== ==================== == === === === ==== ==== === === === ==== ==== === == === == === ===
4 Dwayne Bacon g 31 5 16 0 4 0 1 10 0 3 3 3 0 1 0 1
5 Malik Beasley g 35 8 13 2 5 5 5 23 2 4 6 4 2 1 0 0
15 Boris Bojanovsky c 23 3 4 0 0 0 2 6 3 1 4 4 1 0 3 0
22 Xavier Rathan-Mayes g 32 2 9 1 6 1 1 6 0 2 2 4 5 2 0 1
32 Montay Brandon g 15 1 3 0 0 2 4 4 2 3 5 2 1 0 0 0
1 Devon Bookert 30 7 11 6 9 1 1 21 0 2 2 2 3 3 0 3
3 Benji Bell 9 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 2 1 1 1 0 0
14 Terance Mann 10 1 1 0 0 0 0 2 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 0
21 Christ Koumadje 5 0 1 0 0 1 2 1 1 1 2 0 0 0 0 0
23 Jarquez Smith 10 0 1 0 0 2 2 2 0 2 2 4 0 0 1 0
Team 2 2 1
=========================================================================
FSU 5 200 27 59 9 24 12 18 75 8 23 31 24 13 9 4 5
Opp 200 25 56 10 26 24 33 84 15 27 42 15 15 9 8 6
| 1 | 2 | Total | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Florida State | |||
| Clemson |
From the FSU Website, seminoles.com.
Rathan-Mayes Scores 30; Tar Heels Top Seminoles.
By Tim Linafelt, Seminoles.com Senior Writer
TALLAHASSEE, FL – For a brief moment early in the second half here Monday night, Florida State seemed to have all the ingredients needed for an upset of No. 7 North Carolina.
The Seminoles had rallied had back from a double-digit deficit to take a lead, sophomore guard Xavier Rathan-Mayes had once again caught fire from the field and the crowd packed inside the Donald L. Tucker Center was as loud as at any point this season, maybe at any point in years.
Then, almost immediately, the Tar Heels flexed their muscles and reminded everyone in attendance – as well as a national TV audience – why they entered the season ranked No. 1 in the country.
Brice Johnson had 39 points and 23 rebounds – that’s not a typo – and Marcus Paige added 30 points and five assists as the more experienced, deeper Tar Heels raced past Florida State for a 106-90 victory at the Donald L. Tucker Center.
FSU lost back-to-back games for the first time this season and will look for its first conference win at No. 11 Miami on Saturday.
“We lost to a team tonight that I thought just had a little too much firepower for us,” FSU coach Leonard Hamilton said. “Obviously, they had two players that we had a very difficult time defending. We dug a hole for ourselves early in the game and I was very proud of the fact that our guys fought back. I thought they gave tremendous effort.”
Johnson’s night was reflective of North Carolina’s game as whole: Lots of points and lots of rebounds.
After taking a 41-37 lead into the break, the Tar Heels came back to shoot 65.7 percent from the field in the second half.
And UNC enjoyed an overwhelming advantage on the glass, where it outrebounded FSU 50-33. That included 32 offensive rebounds that led to 17 second-chance points.
“That’s what you’re going to get from a good team,” FSU freshman Dwayne Bacon said. “It frustrates you a lot, you’ve just got to keep fighting.”
Early on, the game had the makings of a blow out.
The Tar Heels scored the game’s first eight points and led by as much as 14 before the Seminoles – primarily Rathan-Mayes – rallied and cut their deficit to 31-27.
Rathan-Mayes, who scored 35 against UNC at Chapel Hill last year, struck for 30 points on Monday and made 7 of 9 attempts from 3-point range.
And freshmen Bacon and Malik Beasley heated up after slow first halves to finish with 18 and 15 points, respectively.
Beasley’s layup at the 15:49 mark of the second half completed a 43-28 FSU run and gave the Seminoles their only lead of the game at 56-55.
But despite a crowd of 11,095 – including nearly 3,500 students – finally on its feet and loud, that lead proved to be short-lived.
The Tar Heels reclaimed their advantage after a strange sequence in which freshman Chris Koumadje was whistled for a foul and then issued an additional technical foul for swatting the ball into the stands after the whistle.
That kicked off an 11-2 UNC run that kept the Seminoles at arm’s length for the rest of the game.
During two-minute, 24-second stretch, Johnson went on a 15-6 run all by himself.
“Brice Johnson was off the charts,” Tar Heels coach Roy Williams said. “I’ve been on his case for four years. I’m still going to be on his case, but 39 points, 23 rebounds, that was a man’s night.”
Added Hamilton: “I thought we did a very poor job of keeping Brice off the boards. But to his credit, I thought sometimes we had him blocked out and he went over us with his athleticism and finished the play.
“Sometimes it’s not all about what you don’t do. Sometimes you’ve got to give teams credit for doing things right.”
In a way, that summed up the game. Led by their core of Rathan-Mayes, Bacon and Beasley, Seminoles have a good team with a chance to be even better by the end of the season.
The Tar Heels, however, have a great team that’s bolstered by seniors who will be playing in the NBA next year.
FSU at least made a believer out of Williams.
“They’re big-time athletes (with) big-time ability to score, run it up and down the court,” he said. “I don’t want to play them anymore.”
NO NAME GS MIN FGM FGA 3FGM 3FGA FTM FTA PTS OREB DREB REB PF AST TO BLK STL
== ==================== == === === === ==== ==== === === === ==== ==== === == === == === ===
4 Dwayne Bacon g 28 6 18 0 2 6 8 18 3 4 7 1 2 0 0 1
5 Malik Beasley g 24 5 11 1 2 4 5 15 2 6 8 2 3 2 0 1
15 Boris Bojanovsky c 15 0 1 0 0 4 4 4 2 2 4 4 1 1 1 1
22 Xavier Rathan-Mayes g 34 8 16 7 9 7 9 30 0 4 4 1 3 3 0 0
32 Montay Brandon g 22 0 1 0 0 1 2 1 1 0 1 1 0 2 1 0
1 Devon Bookert 29 3 8 1 4 0 0 7 0 1 1 1 2 3 0 2
3 Benji Bell 13 4 6 1 1 1 3 10 0 0 0 2 1 2 0 0
14 Terance Mann 18 2 5 0 1 0 0 4 1 1 2 1 0 0 0 3
21 Christ Koumadje 9 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 1 1 4 1 0 1 0
23 Jarquez Smith 8 0 2 0 1 1 2 1 1 1 2 5 0 1 0 0
Team 1 2 3
=========================================================================
FSU 5 200 28 68 10 20 24 34 90 11 22 33 22 13 14 3 8
Opp 200 38 76 6 17 24 32 106 18 32 50 28 18 16 7 6
| 1 | 2 | Total | |
|---|---|---|---|
| North Carolina | |||
| Florida State |
From the FSU Website, seminoles.com.
Noles' Rally Falls Short in 72-59 Loss At Miami.
By Tim Linafelt, Seminoles.com Senior Writer
CORAL GABLES, FL – Hungry for a first Atlantic Coast Conference win that would snap a two-game skid and shake them out of a midseason lull, the Florida State Seminoles slogged through another slow start on the way to a 72-59 defeat at No. 12 Miami.
In what’s become a troubling trend over the last week, the Seminoles started 1 of 9 from the field as the Hurricanes built a 10-2 lead a little more than five minutes into the game.
Each time the Seminoles threatened to get back in it – they cut their deficit to two points late in the first half and three points early in the second – the Hurricanes had an answer.
And that final answer was emphatic.
After Xavier Rathan-Mayes’ layup trimmed Miami’s lead to 36-33 with 15:47 left in the game, UM launched a 15-1 run that brought the Bank United Center to a roar and effectively sealed FSU’s fate.
“I’m pleased with the effort, I’m just disappointed that we lost,” FSU coach Leonard Hamilton said. “I thought we fought hard. I thought the kids stuck with our defensive game plan and our offensive game plan.
“It was just one of those nights where we had free throws that didn’t go in, we had wide-open jump shots that didn’t fall and we (missed) point-blank layups.”
The Seminoles are 0-3 in ACC play for the first time since the 2006-07 season. They’ll look to get back on track Wednesday when they visit North Carolina State (9 p.m., RSN).
“That’s a win we have to have,” Rathan-Mayes said.
Saturday marked the third time in as many conference games that the Seminoles sputtered out of the opening tip.
They fell behind 12-2 at Clemson last week and 13-3 against North Carolina on Monday.
Those deficits, while not insurmountable – FSU came back to tie Clemson and briefly led UNC – make for an awfully slim margin for error.
“It’s the best league in college basketball and when you get down 9, 10, 12 points, it’s hard to claw yourself back out,” Rathan-Mayes said. “And if you’re able to, you’ve used a lot of energy. So it’s tough.”
Saturday’s game was a bit of reversal from Monday’s, when the Seminoles scored in bunches against North Carolina but struggled to defend.
Instead, FSU couldn’t get much going on offense against Miami and failed to score at least 60 points for this first time this season.
The Seminoles shot just 35.4 percent from the field, made 2 of their 19 3-point attempts and had trouble finishing near the basket, too.
FSU did, however, reverse one area of concern by outrebounding the Canes, 39-38. That’s a big improvement from Monday, when UNC held a 50-33 advantage on the glass.
“We got shots that we wanted down the stretch,” Rathan-Mayes said. “Shots that we were consistently making, we didn’t make. Sometimes that’s how it’s going to be. But we’ve got to find a way to get around that.”
Malik Beasley led the Seminoles with 13 points and nine rebounds, while Dwayne Bacon and Rathan-Mayes each added 10 points.
Miami’s Sheldon McClellan led all scorers with 21 points, 20 of which came in the second half.
His 3-pointer from the top of the key midway through the second half stretched UM’s lead to 51-34, its largest of the game.
“Once (Miami) came out of that stretch where I thought we defended very well, they knocked down a perimeter shot or took the ball to the basket,” Hamilton said. “You’ve got to give them credit. … They made us pay every time we made a mistake.”
The key now, Hamilton said, is to keep things in perspective.
While FSU has lost three straight, two of those losses came against The Nos. 7 and 12 teams in the country. And with 15 league games to play, the Seminoles still have time to turn things around.
But with a visit to NC State up next, as well as difficult dates with No. 4 Virginia and No. 16 Louisville on the horizon, the upcoming path doesn’t appear much easier.
“We’ll come through this all right,” Hamilton said. “I see growth from the first ACC game to this game, and if we keep fighting and scratching and scratchingand clawing, then we’ll start to getting some victories.”
NO NAME GS MIN FGM FGA 3FGM 3FGA FTM FTA PTS OREB DREB REB PF AST TO BLK STL
== ==================== == === === === ==== ==== === === === ==== ==== === == === == === ===
4 Dwayne Bacon g 25 4 12 1 4 1 1 10 1 4 5 4 2 1 0 0
5 Malik Beasley g 36 5 16 0 4 3 3 13 2 7 9 3 0 3 0 1
15 Boris Bojanovsky c 18 4 7 0 1 0 0 8 3 1 4 2 0 3 2 0
22 Xavier Rathan-Mayes g 31 3 8 0 3 4 4 10 0 2 2 2 4 2 0 1
32 Montay Brandon g 22 0 1 0 1 0 4 0 1 3 4 0 1 3 0 0
1 Devon Bookert 25 2 7 1 3 2 2 7 1 2 3 2 2 1 0 1
3 Benji Bell 7 1 1 0 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 1 2 1 0 1
14 Terance Mann 14 0 3 0 1 1 2 1 1 3 4 1 0 0 0 0
21 Christ Koumadje 3 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0
23 Jarquez Smith 19 4 9 0 2 0 0 8 2 2 4 2 0 0 1 1
Team 3 1 4
=========================================================================
FSU 5 200 23 65 2 19 11 16 59 14 25 39 17 11 14 4 5
Opp 200 27 57 6 24 12 16 72 7 31 38 16 12 13 1 4
| 1 | 2 | Total | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Florida State | |||
| Miami |
From the FSU Website, seminoles.com.
Noles Down Pack For Pivotal ACC Win.
By: Billy Clark, Sports Information
RALEIGH, NC — Florida State (11-5, 1-3) finally got the hot start they’d been looking for in conference play, coming out strong en route to a 85-78 win over the NC State Wolfpack (10-7, 0-4), notching their first ACC win of the season. The Seminoles took the lead at the 17:40 mark in the first half, and never trailed again.
Malik Beasley led the Noles with 22 points and eight rebounds as they outshot the Wolfpack 50% to 37.5%. Senior Devon Bookert added 18 points (4-4 from 3-pt) of his own as the Noles were able to hold off a late Wolfpack surge. ACC leading scorer, NC State’s Cat Barber, scored 16 points, nearly seven below his season average (22.9 PPG). Abdul-Malik Abu led the Wolfpack with 21 pts and 13 rebounds, while Dwayne Bacon came on in the second half to add 15 points for the Noles. Five Seminoles shot over 50 percent for the game.
The Seminoles came out shooting from the start, hitting 51.7 percent from the floor (50% from 3) in the first half and jumping out to a 38-28 halftime lead. Likewise, NC State shot 33.3 percent and just 21.4 percent from three point range in the opening half. The Wolfpack were held scoreless in the final four minutes of the half, allowing the Noles to enter the break with a double-digit advantage.
That opening period fed into a successful start to the second half for the Seminoles, but the Pack were able close to gap to just five with 12:46 left. After an NC State miss, Malik Beasley took the ball the length of the court for a layup and was fouled by NC State’s Barber, giving Barber his third foul and halting the NCSU attack. The Wolfpack would close the gap to five at the 8:50 mark, but Devon Bookert hit a three-pointer with 8:02 to stop the second run.
Down six points with 48 seconds to go, NCSU’s Maverick Rowan hit two consecutive threes to close the gap to just three, giving the Wolfpack life for a third time. It was not to be, as the Noles hit FT’s and stopped NC State’s final possessions to hold on for a much-needed win.
Coming in, both teams were striving for their first conference victory, each led by high-scoring backcourts. Coach Leonard Hamilton knew the team might have to scrap to gain the upper hand in the contest, and that was the case as the Seminoles were forced to hold off several Wolfpack runs in the second half. Florida State was able to shoot efficiently from the floor and get the stops they needed on the defensive end.
Coach Hamilton showed the Seminoles’ depth as the bench scored over 30 of the team’s 85 points. With Boris Bojanovsky in foul trouble for much of the game, freshman center Christ Koumadje contributed 11 valuable minutes, providing three blocks and two boards. Freshman forward Terance Mann continues to grow as a player, as he came off the bench for seven points, nine boards and two blocks in 27 minutes. The freshmen group of Beasley, Bacon, and Mann, along with senior guard Bookert, continue to be the Seminoles’ most consistent and reliable playmakers.They pushed the pace of the game, consistently exploding toward the rim and getting out in transition. With the benefit of their quick pace, the Seminoles were able to stave off the Wolfpack in the final minutes and leave PNC Arena with a ‘W’.
NO NAME GS MIN FGM FGA 3FGM 3FGA FTM FTA PTS OREB DREB REB PF AST TO BLK STL
== ==================== == === === === ==== ==== === === === ==== ==== === == === == === ===
4 Dwayne Bacon g 28 6 14 2 5 1 3 15 1 3 4 1 2 5 0 1
5 Malik Beasley g 32 7 12 2 3 6 7 22 1 8 9 3 0 0 1 1
15 Boris Bojanovsky c 14 2 3 0 0 0 1 4 3 2 5 5 0 0 1 1
22 Xavier Rathan-Mayes g 28 3 7 1 3 4 6 11 0 1 1 1 7 2 0 1
32 Montay Brandon g 9 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 3 0 1 0 1
1 Devon Bookert 26 6 9 4 4 2 2 18 2 0 2 2 0 0 0 1
3 Benji Bell 11 1 4 0 0 0 0 2 1 3 4 2 1 2 0 0
14 Terance Mann 27 3 6 0 2 1 3 7 3 6 9 2 0 0 2 0
21 Christ Koumadje 11 1 3 0 0 0 0 2 1 1 2 1 0 1 3 0
23 Jarquez Smith 14 2 3 0 0 0 0 4 1 0 1 2 0 2 1 0
Team 1 2 3
=========================================================================
FSU 5 200 31 62 9 17 14 22 85 14 26 40 22 10 13 8 6
Opp 200 24 64 7 26 23 32 78 20 21 41 19 13 12 2 6
| 1 | 2 | Total | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Florida State | |||
| North Carolina State |
From the FSU Website, seminoles.com.
Bacon Leads Seminoles Over No. 11 Virginia 69-62.
TALLAHASSEE, FL – Making plays when they mattered most, Florida State looked the part of the more seasoned team in Sunday’s 69-62 victory over 11th-ranked Virginia.
Shooting 63 percent from the floor in the second half and knocking down nine of 10 free throw attempts in the final 47 seconds, the Seminoles (12-5, 2-3 ACC) snapped a five-game losing streak against the Cavaliers (13-4, 2-3).
In a game featuring 10 ties and seven lead changes, the Seminoles’ victory may well have turned on two plays; the second of which led to FSU’s final field goal of the night inside the energized Donald L. Tucker Center.
“There were a lot of heroes,” Florida State coach Leonard Hamilton said.
Clinging to a 57-53 lead in the face of a Virginia run led by Anthony Gill and London Perrantes, Xavier Rathan-Mayes ran down a long offensive rebound following Terance Mann’s errant baseline jumper. Freshman Dwayne Bacon reversed the ball to senior Devon Bookert, who buried a 3-pointer with 2:24 to play for a 60-53 lead.
“I just had a sense that we needed the ball and I just tried to go get it for our team,” Rathan-Mayes said. “We slowed it down a little bit, executed our offense and were able to get Bookert a really good three on a kick-back. … We were able to make them pay for allowing us to get that rebound.”
Bookert’s triple proved to be FSU’s final field goal of the night, and the Seminoles were nearly perfect down the stretch from the line to prevail.
“It was real big,” Bookert said of Rathan-Mayes’ rebound. “Everybody was racing around. Someone tipped the ball and X ran it down. They were starting to get some momentum, so I think that really equaled it out.”
The Seminoles seemingly found ways to neutralize the Cavaliers all night; perhaps a sign of a team – which was 0-3 in ACC play eight days ago – is growing up.
“We knew we had to match their toughness and their energy because if you’ve watched them over the last couple of years, most of the time they’ve been the toughest team on the court,” FSU coach Leonard Hamilton said of the Cavaliers. “I thought our guys matched their energy, matched their toughness. We fought on every possession…
“Tonight we showed signs that we’re maturing. We weren’t quite as insecure and we played with a lot more confidence tonight than we had in some of the games earlier.”
FSU’s freshmen tandem of Malik Beasley and Bacon was very much in the middle of the first win over a ranked opponent this season. They combined for 35 points, including 21 in the second half, as the Seminoles won for the second time in five days.
Bacon led the Seminoles with 18 points and Beasley added 17. Rathan-Mayes chipped in 11, while Bookert and Jarquez Smith combined for 17 off the bench.
“Our problem early on was being immature,” Bookert said. “Now we’re getting closer to our potential because we’ve become more mature and we’re understanding the things we have to do to get better to succeed.”
That was evident in the closing seconds of the first half when the Seminoles came up with a momentum-changing play.
Beasley’s corner 3-pointer to close the first half pulled the Seminoles within three, 28-25 at intermission. The first field goal of the night for the Seminoles’ leading scorer, off a Rathan-Mayes pass in front of the Cavaliers’ bench, just beat the buzzer.
It blunted a 12-2 run by the Cavaliers, who had opened up a 28-20 lead with 2:31 remaining in the half on five consecutive made field goals, including three-pointers by Malcolm Brogdon and Perrantes. The Seminoles missed seven consecutive shots and turned the ball over three times, contributing to the Cavaliers’ run.
“We were resilient and kept fighting,” Bookert said.
Bacon’s driving layup with 2:13 remaining halted FSU’s shooting slump and the Seminole defense came up big, forcing a turnover with 11 seconds remaining – a five-second violation on an inbounds play - as the Cavaliers were trying to work for the final shot of the half.
“It was a great defensive stop that we needed,” said Beasley, who had missed his first five shots and turned the ball over three times in 16 first half minutes. “That’s what helped us and gave us the confidence to knock down the next shot. It happened to be me. I’m thankful that X passed the ball. It was a great pass.”
“That was frustrating because we wanted to get the last shot,” Virginia coach Tony Bennett said, afterward. “That was a momentum-changer, but that wasn’t the difference.”
FSU’s ability to convert on the offensive end in the second half, and its defense of Brogdon and Perrantes, who were a combined 8-of-30 from the floor, were contributing factors. It certainly didn’t hurt that the Seminoles only turned the ball over six times in the second half and converted 21 of 26 free throw attempts.
The opening half featured six ties, four lead changes and hot-and-cold shooting swings by both sides.
After missing their first five shots of the night, the Seminoles knocked down five of their next six. Jarquez Smith’s second three-point play of the stretch, which he completed after the 10:34 media timeout, gave the Seminoles a 13-10 lead.
Smith led the Seminoles with eight points at the break, including his jump-hook with 5:27 remaining for an 18-16 lead.
NO NAME GS MIN FGM FGA 3FGM 3FGA FTM FTA PTS OREB DREB REB PF AST TO BLK STL
== ==================== == === === === ==== ==== === === === ==== ==== === == === == === ===
4 Dwayne Bacon g 35 6 11 1 2 5 7 18 1 8 9 2 2 5 0 1
5 Malik Beasley g 31 5 10 3 3 4 4 17 0 3 3 1 0 3 0 1
15 Boris Bojanovsky c 12 0 2 0 0 2 2 2 0 1 1 4 0 2 0 0
22 Xavier Rathan-Mayes g 29 2 6 0 3 7 8 11 1 2 3 3 1 2 0 1
32 Montay Brandon g 27 1 2 0 1 0 0 2 0 2 2 1 2 1 1 1
1 Devon Bookert 24 3 4 2 3 1 3 9 1 2 3 2 3 0 1 1
3 Benji Bell 4 0 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 0
14 Terance Mann 13 1 3 0 0 0 0 2 0 1 1 1 0 1 0 0
23 Jarquez Smith 25 3 4 0 0 2 2 8 0 5 5 3 0 1 1 0
Team 2 1 3
=========================================================================
FSU 5 200 21 43 6 13 21 26 69 5 26 31 17 8 15 3 5
Opp 200 22 56 5 12 13 15 62 6 19 25 21 14 9 1 4
| 1 | 2 | Total | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Virginia | |||
| Florida State |
From the FSU Website, seminoles.com.
Noles' Streak Stopped At Louisville.
By Tim Linafelt, Seminoles.com Senior Writer
LOUISVILLE, KY – Hosting Florida State for the first time in more than 25 years, the Louisville Cardinals gave FSU a rude welcome on Wednesday night.
Bolstered by a deep frontcourt that led to a heavy rebounding advantage, the No. 17 Cardinals jumped out to a big lead and cruised to an 84-65 victory over the Seminoles here at the KFC Yum! Center.
The loss snapped FSU’s two-game winning streak and put a halt to some of the momentum gained after last week’s victory over then-No. 11 Virginia. The Seminoles (12-6, 2-4 ACC) will look to get back on track at home on Saturday against Pittsburgh (4 p.m., ACC Network).
“These are the kinds of games, as coaches, you hope you don’t have but one of them a year,” FSU coach Leonard Hamilton said. “You learn from this and hopefully this will motivate us, as young as we are, to go back and get back on another winning streak.”
Freshman guard Malik Beasley scored a game-high 23 points on 10 of 16 shooting to extend his streak of double-digit scoring to 18 games.
Beyond that, though, there wasn’t much about this one that the Seminoles will want to remember.
With assist leader and third-leading scorer Xavier Rathan-Mayes sidelined due what Hamilton called a “coach’s decision,” the Seminoles struggled to find much success against Louisville’s second-ranked scoring defense.
They shot just 42.4 percent from the field and converted only 9 of 21 free-throw attempts.
Even that number is somewhat deceiving – the Seminoles started the game 3 of 10 from the free-throw line.
“Actually, we’re one of the better free throw shooting teams in the conference, but it didn’t look like that tonight,” Hamilton said. ‘I don’t know when I’ve been in a game where we’ve shot so poorly from the free throw line.”
Senior Devon Bookert finished with 18 points and seven boards, but Dwayne Bacon, the team’s next leading scorer, made just 4 of 17 field-goal attempts and finished with 12 points.
Beasley, Bookert and Bacon accounted for 53 of FSU’s 65 points. No other Seminole scored more than five.
“I thought that (Louisville) created a lot of indecision on our kids’ part. …” Hamilton said.
“It just shows that a lot of our young, inexperienced guys were obviously somewhat tentative and just didn’t have that mental and emotional focus that it takes to come in and play against a team that’s playing as well as Louisville did tonight.”
Playing its first game in nearly a week, Louisville (15-3, 4-1) looked the part of a fresher, deeper team.
With 6-10, 240-pound center Chinanu Onuaku leading the way, the Cardinals enjoyed a heavy advantage in both rebounds (44-36) and points in the paint (42-34, although FSU had only 12 at halftime).
Onuaku (11 points, 14 rebounds) had his fifth straight double, while sophomore guard Quentin Snider added 20 points.
“We knew coming into the game they average about 15 offensive rebounds,” Beasley said. “We wanted to cut that down to seven, but that got out of hand quick because of their front line.”
Louisville’s dominance in the post once again shined a light on FSU’s lack of depth in that area. Senior center Michael Ojo (knee) has yet to play this season while sophomore forward Phil Cofer is out for the year while recovering from foot surgery.
Meanwhile, 7-footers Boris Bojanovsky and Chris Koumadje combined for five points and four rebounds.
“We’ve got to make up for our lack of size in the interior with better execution,” Hamilton said. ”You can’t let that become a problem because that’s who we are this year. We don’t have that power forward to match so we have to rebound as a team. I didn’t think we did that very well.”
The Seminoles held their own for stretches of the first half, hovering around a six-point deficit before Louisville closed the half on a 12-4 run that led to a 41-27 lead at the break.
The Cardinals then picked up where they left off, steadily throwing down alley-oops and dunks while building a lead that at one point ballooned to more than 30 points.
The Seminoles closed the game on a 10-0 run in the game’s waning minutes to provide the final margin.
For once, Hamilton said he’s glad to have a deceptively quick turnaround between games. The team will return to Tallahassee early Thursday morning before hosting Pitt on Saturday, which means there won’t be time to dwell much on Wednesday’s result.
Instead, they’ll look to flush this one and recapture the form that they had just a few days ago.
“We need to get back to work,” Hamilton said. “This loss will motivate us and inspire us. We’re not nearly as bad a team as we displayed tonight.”
NO NAME GS MIN FGM FGA 3FGM 3FGA FTM FTA PTS OREB DREB REB PF AST TO BLK STL
== ==================== == === === === ==== ==== === === === ==== ==== === == === == === ===
1 Devon Bookert g 34 7 14 4 6 0 1 18 4 3 7 2 2 4 0 3
4 Dwayne Bacon g 35 4 17 0 6 4 8 12 2 8 10 2 2 1 0 2
5 Malik Beasley g 34 10 16 1 5 2 5 23 1 2 3 5 2 6 0 2
15 Boris Bojanovsky c 12 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 3 1 1 3 1
32 Montay Brandon g 11 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 4 1 0 0 2
3 Benji Bell 17 1 3 1 1 0 0 3 2 2 4 0 2 1 0 0
14 Terance Mann 28 1 3 0 0 2 4 4 0 1 1 3 2 2 0 1
21 Christ Koumadje 16 2 3 0 0 1 2 5 2 1 3 4 0 1 2 0
23 Jarquez Smith 11 0 1 0 0 0 1 0 1 2 3 2 0 0 0 0
31 Michael Saxton 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 0
Team 1 1 2
=========================================================================
FSU 5 200 25 59 6 18 9 21 65 14 22 36 25 12 16 5 11
Opp 200 32 67 5 16 15 23 84 17 27 44 20 12 13 4 9
| 1 | 2 | Total | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Florida State | |||
| Louisville |
From the FSU Website, seminoles.com.
Seminoles Fall At Home To Pitt, 74-72.
By Tim Linafelt, Seminoles.com Senior Writer
TALLAHASSEE, FL – Florida State’s game against Pittsburgh on Saturday left the Seminoles with broken hearts and sick stomachs.
Despite at times playing some of their best basketball of the season – FSU shot 53.7 percent from the field and outrebounded the Panthers – the Seminoles allowed Pitt to escape with a 74-72 victory here at the Donald L. Tucker Center.
FSU (12-7, 2-5 ACC) led for more than 30 minutes and held a 10-point advantage at halftime.
But instead of a win that might have confirmed that the team is trending in the right direction – even after a lopsided loss at Louisville earlier this week – the Seminoles are once again looking to stop a two-game skid.
They’ll take their next crack at it at Boston College on Tuesday.
“It was a huge opportunity,” sophomore guard Xavier Rathan-Mayes said. “And we had a few plays down the stretch that we didn’t make. A couple block-outs that we missed. I had a tough pass to ‘Book’ (Devon Bookert) that I turned over. It was just a few plays down the stretch.
“It’s a process, but it’s time for us to start getting wins.”
In a cruel turn, the same things that the Seminoles did so well for most of the game later led to their undoing.
They more than held their own on the glass, grabbing 32 rebounds to Pitt’s 31. But they surrendered 15 offensive rebounds, the last of which led to Jamel Artis’ game breaking 3-pointer with 33 seconds to go.
They held Pitt to 39.3 percent shooting, but those offensive boards let the Panthers off the hook and let to several second opportunities, both from the floor and the free-throw line. Pittsburgh had twice as many free-throw opportunities as FSU, and made more (16) than the Seminoles even attempted (12).
“I think that probably had as much to do with us losing the game as anything,” FSU coach Leonard Hamilton said. “And that’s to their credit. That’s who they are. They’ve always been that type of team.”
Even Malik Beasley scored 16 points on a perfect 7-for-7 shooting performance, only to watch the final 2 minutes and 26 after fouling out.
“I hate people having easy baskets,” Beasley said. “That’s why I got the foul. … I’ve just got to be smarter off the ball when I’m helping.”
The final few seconds of the game will likely stick with the Seminoles for a while.
After Artis’ 3-pointer, the Seminoles still had the ball with 26 seconds and a chance to tie the game and send it to overtime.
But after a 30-second timeout, freshman guard Dwayne Bacon couldn’t find a recipient for his in-bound pass and was called for a five-second violation.
Pitt got the ball and, a few moments later, Michael Young knocked down a pair of free throws that sealed the game.
“The percentages say we did a pretty good job offensively, but I didn’t think we were as sharp offensively,” FSU coach Leonard Hamilton said. “And I think a lot of it was we had unforced turnovers. The walks, the passes out of bounds, we had several of those. There was a big turnover that we made there at the end, but I’m not real sure that was the reason why we lost the game.”
All told, FSU turned the ball over 16 times, and Hamilton estimated that about half of those were unforced.
As a result, the Seminoles left themselves a slim margin for error in the second half.
“There lies a close loss,” he said. “You’ve got to give (Pitt) credit for playing within themselves and doing the little things they had to do. They took advantage of us being a little smaller and not quite as big and physical inside. That’s what good teams in the ACC will do.”
Given the way Saturday’s game played out, it stands to reason that if Pitt is a good ACC team, then the Seminoles aren’t very far behind.
But after seven games, FSU still finds itself uncomfortably positioned in the league standings and in need of victories.
Hamilton said he continues to see the team make progress, even after Saturday’s disappointment.
But, as he put it, “We’re just not quite efficient enough to get over the hump.”
Still, Beasley insisted after the game that the Seminoles are still feeling confident and optimistic about the remainder of the season. And with 11 conference games left, there will be more opportunities to get over that hump.
The Seminoles are just anxious for it to happen.
“I think the energy is still positive in the locker room,” Beasley said. “Off the court, we’re always having fun still. But we know we’ve got to come together to win.”
NO NAME GS MIN FGM FGA 3FGM 3FGA FTM FTA PTS OREB DREB REB PF AST TO BLK STL
== ==================== == === === === ==== ==== === === === ==== ==== === == === == === ===
4 Dwayne Bacon g 30 6 11 0 2 0 0 12 1 2 3 3 1 8 0 0
5 Malik Beasley g 25 7 7 2 2 0 0 16 1 5 6 5 3 1 0 0
15 Boris Bojanovsky c 18 2 5 0 0 2 2 6 2 6 8 5 0 0 1 0
22 Xavier Rathan-Mayes g 34 5 11 2 6 2 2 14 1 2 3 1 3 3 0 1
32 Montay Brandon g 17 0 2 0 1 1 2 1 0 0 0 3 0 0 1 0
1 Devon Bookert 28 4 8 2 4 0 1 10 1 4 5 2 4 1 0 1
3 Benji Bell 3 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0
14 Terance Mann 23 3 6 0 1 3 5 9 1 1 2 3 1 3 0 0
21 Christ Koumadje 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
23 Jarquez Smith 21 2 4 0 0 0 0 4 0 2 2 2 0 0 2 1
Team 2 1 3
=========================================================================
FSU 5 200 29 54 6 16 8 12 72 9 23 32 24 13 16 4 3
Opp 200 24 61 10 23 16 24 74 15 16 31 16 12 10 2 3
| 1 | 2 | Total | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pittsburgh | |||
| Florida State |
From the FSU Website, seminoles.com.
Noles Race Past Eagles, 72-62
By Billy Clark, Seminoles.com Correspondent
CHESTNUT HILL, MA - Behind the usual suspects - freshmen Dwayne Bacon and Malik Beasley - Florida State (13-7, 3-5) picked up its fourth straight win over Boston College (7-13, 0-7) Tuesday night at the Silvio O. Conte Forum, defeating the Eagles, 72-62.
In a league as competitive as the Atlantic Coast Conference, every game has the potential to be a momentum-building win or a significant setback. With both teams desperately needing a conference win, Florida State was able to outrun the Eagles en route to its third ACC win, second on the road, of the season.
Beasley, the fourth-leading scorer in the ACC, came out firing and connected on his first two attempts from outside the arc.
He finished the first half with 13 points, three-of-five from three-point range. He finished with a game-high 22 points and five rebounds to lead the Seminoles.
This was Beasley’s eighth game of 20 points-or-more points this season.
Bacon appears to be rounding out his game as well, pulling down a career-high 14 rebounds along with 12 points to help the Seminole backcourt outrace the Eagles. Bacon combined his usual driving ability in the lane with an off-the-ball hustle to put together a double-double.
For much of the game, coach Leonard Hamilton countered BC’s smaller, quicker guards with the four-guard lineup that the Seminoles have used throughout the season, with 6-foot-9 [T2] Jarquez Smith playing at the “five.”
Initially, however, the Noles had trouble getting going against the ACC’s lowest-scoring team. By the end of the first half, Smith was able to put it together against the smaller BC frontcourt and finished the half with two dunks (11 total points) as the Seminoles closed out with a 37-32 lead at halftime. Smith finished the game with 13 points and nine rebounds in 27 minutes.
The young Seminoles were able to push the game at their trademark pace, one of the fastest in the conference, while Boston College, the slowest in the league, was forced to keep up. The Noles were able to get to the line 25 times and make 21 attempts, good for 84 percent from the stripe.
Boston College only got to the line nine times and made a mere 22 percent of them.
Due to some turnovers and inefficient shooting early on from FSU, the Eagles were able lead for much of the first half. The quick pace of the Seminoles later wore down the BC, and FSU was able to go into the half with a lead. The Seminoles did not relinquish that lead for the rest of the contest.
The Eagle offense runs through fifth-year senior guard Eli Carter, who scored 16 points and dished eight assists. Fellow guard Jerome Robinson added 15 points.
Florida State’s Xavier Rathan-Mayes channeled his inner point guard, deferring to the freshmen in the scoring column but contributing nine assists and five boards as he grows in his role as a facilitator on offense.
NO NAME GS MIN FGM FGA 3FGM 3FGA FTM FTA PTS OREB DREB REB PF AST TO BLK STL
== ==================== == === === === ==== ==== === === === ==== ==== === == === == === ===
4 Dwayne Bacon g 30 3 11 0 1 6 9 12 5 9 14 1 3 0 0 1
5 Malik Beasley g 37 7 13 4 7 4 4 22 2 3 5 2 1 4 0 1
15 Boris Bojanovsky c 12 2 2 0 0 0 0 4 0 1 1 3 0 4 0 0
22 Xavier Rathan-Mayes g 34 0 8 0 5 7 8 7 2 3 5 1 9 4 0 1
32 Montay Brandon f 15 3 5 0 0 0 0 6 1 2 3 1 1 0 0 0
1 Devon Bookert 20 1 5 1 4 0 0 3 0 1 1 2 1 2 0 3
3 Benji Bell 8 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
14 Terance Mann 16 2 4 0 0 1 1 5 2 3 5 0 2 0 0 0
21 Christ Koumadje 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 0
23 Jarquez Smith 27 5 9 0 0 3 3 13 3 6 9 2 0 3 5 2
31 Michael Saxton 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Team 2 2
=========================================================================
FSU 5 200 23 59 5 17 21 25 72 16 30 46 12 17 17 5 8
Opp 200 26 58 8 19 2 9 62 6 22 28 22 16 17 7 7
| 1 | 2 | Total | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Florida State | |||
| Boston College |
From the FSU Website, seminoles.com.
Bacon's 21 Points Lead Seminoles Past Clemson 76-65.
By Tim Linafelt, Seminoles.com Senior Writer
TALLAHASSEE, FL – As his team rode the ups and downs of the early conference season, Florida State coach Leonard Hamilton insisted that he saw signs of progress from the Seminoles.
Nothing like a successful rematch against an ACC foe to show just how far they’ve come.
Four weeks removed from a difficult loss at Clemson, FSU returned the favor on Saturday in a 76-65 win over the Tigers here at the Donald L. Tucker Center.
It’s the second victory this week for the Seminoles (14-7, 4-5 ACC), who have won four of their last six and can even up their ACC record when NC State visits on Monday night.
“That was as close as we’ve had all year (to a full 40 minutes) of everybody buying in and giving effort and all the little things that we’ve been trying to get them to do,” said FSU coach Leonard Hamilton, who earned his 250th victory with the Seminoles.
On a day when FSU promoted a free bacon giveaway for students, freshman star Dwayne Bacon lived up to his billing with 21 points and six rebounds.
Fellow freshman Malik Beasley added 16 points, which included a rafters-shaking alley-oop that helped steal back some momentum after the Tigers took a lead in the second half.
“Bacon was really good. He and Beasley are terrific players,” Clemson coach Brad Brownell said. “They put a lot of pressure on your team. When you don't run good offense and they get out in transition consistently, that's when Florida State is at their best. They were there today.”
Indeed, FSU hammered the Tigers in transition, scoring 18 fastbreak points to just two for Clemson (13-8, 6-3).
That came in large part due to heavy defensive pressure that forced a number of tipped balls and deflections that the Seminoles turned into steals.
Senior guard Devon Bookert was at the center of that effort, posting three steals to go along with nine points, five assists and five rebounds. FSU grabbed 13 steals and took advantage of 18 Clemson turnovers.
“Today we maintained good defensive position, didn’t reach, didn’t get out of position,” Hamilton said. “But we got deflections that led to the basket for us. I think that was a high level of concentration.”
Florida State led 32-28 at halftime, but the Tigers soon took the lead with a 13-7 run to start the second half.
It was at the point that Saturday’s game started to share an unpleasant resemblance to FSU’s loss to Pittsburgh last week.
But unlike last week, when the Seminoles played a strong first half only to let a lead – and a win – slip away, FSU responded in force against Clemson.
Thanks to some torrid second-half shooting and a defense that forced the Tigers into some bad looks, the Seminoles didn’t trail for long.
Beasley’s layup with 12:07 to go reclaimed the lead for the Seminoles, and his 3-pointer a few moments later helped turn the tide for good.
FSU shot 58.3 percent from the field in the second half (48.1 percent for the game) and led by as much as 12 with six minutes to go.
“We learned from last week,” Bacon said. “And we know we can’t take our foot off the gas, no matter what the numbers are. We kept on pushing.”
Hamilton hopes that maxim holds true come Monday night, when the Seminoles a host an NC State team that they beat, 85-78, in Raleigh earlier this month.
A win over the Wolfpack would get FSU back to .500 in league play and largely erase the frustration of a difficult early stretch, in which the Seminoles played four of their first six ACC games on the road.
But although the Wolfpack had lost seven of its last eight games heading into Saturday’s contest against Miami, Hamilton cautioned against taking them lightly.
“Now that we’ve got a chance to play a couple games at home, we can’t afford to slip up and not take advantage of it,” he said. “… The challenge for us is to reenergize ourselves, refocus and understand that each game puts us back in a position where we can continue to move forward.”
NO NAME GS MIN FGM FGA 3FGM 3FGA FTM FTA PTS OREB DREB REB PF AST TO BLK STL
== ==================== == === === === ==== ==== === === === ==== ==== === == === == === ===
4 Dwayne Bacon g 29 8 15 0 0 5 9 21 3 3 6 2 1 3 0 1
5 Malik Beasley g 34 7 13 1 4 1 2 16 0 3 3 1 1 3 0 0
15 Boris Bojanovsky c 13 1 3 0 0 1 2 3 0 1 1 4 0 0 3 2
22 Xavier Rathan-Mayes g 21 2 7 1 3 5 6 10 0 0 0 2 2 2 0 1
32 Montay Brandon g 23 1 2 0 0 2 4 4 2 4 6 4 1 3 1 1
1 Devon Bookert 21 3 6 1 3 2 2 9 1 4 5 0 5 1 0 3
3 Benji Bell 17 3 4 2 2 0 1 8 1 0 1 1 1 1 0 2
14 Terance Mann 16 1 2 0 0 1 2 3 1 1 2 2 1 2 0 2
21 Christ Koumadje 10 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 2 1 0 0 3 0
23 Jarquez Smith 16 0 1 0 0 2 2 2 1 5 6 3 0 1 2 1
Team 1 2 3
=========================================================================
FSU 5 200 26 54 5 12 19 30 76 11 24 35 20 12 16 9 13
Opp 200 21 63 6 23 17 21 65 16 20 36 22 7 18 5 7
| 1 | 2 | Total | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Clemson | |||
| Florida State |
From the FSU Website, seminoles.com.
Bacon's 20 Leads Florida State Past NC State 77-73.
TALLAHASSEE, FL – With freshman Dwayne Bacon’s turnaround jumper from 15 feet with 15 seconds remaining sealing Florida State’s 77-73 victory over NC State Monday night, the Seminoles have a three-game winning streak and are .500 in Atlantic Coast Conference play for the first time in nearly a year.
Bacon scored 20 points and fellow freshman Malik Beasely added 15, leading the Seminoles (15-7, 5-5 ACC), who received contributions from virtually everyone who checked into the game.
As a result, FSU is heading into its final eight conference games with momentum following a 0-3 start in league play. It’s the first time the Noles have been at .500 in league play since getting to 7-7 with a win over Boston College on Feb. 18 of last year.
“We’re learning a little bit more about the level of intensity that we have to play with for 40 minutes,” Florida State coach Leonard Hamilton said. “That every possession is important. That attention to detail is very important. The little things, the block outs, contesting shots, the rotations, and giving tremendous effort.
"We're growing in confidence. We're making good decisions, having good shot selection. That's a learned skill. We weren't quite there with four, five new players. It's not easy to develop that chemistry, that understanding. It takes time to work through that.”
Fresh off its drubbing of No. 15 Miami on Saturday behind Cat Barber’s 30 points, NC State (12-11, 2-8) refused to go away quietly in the face of a 12-point halftime deficit. Barber, the ACC’s scoring leader and reigning Player of the Week, scored 19 of his game-high 31 points in the second half as the Wolfpack pulled within two points on five occasions, only to be rebuffed.
Each time the Noles found an answer, usually in the form of a basket from either Bacon or Beasley, who had 12 points each in the second half. That’s something Hamilton’s squad did not do 12 days earlier, squandering a double-digit halftime lead in a gut-wrenching 74-72 home loss to Pitt.
“I think we learned from Pitt when we had that lead at halftime and didn’t close out,” Bacon said. “In these last two home games we’ve closed it out big time…We’ve just got to keep fighting.”
Bacon, on the heels of earning ACC Rookie of the Week honors earlier in the day, scored eight of the Seminoles final 10 points to offset Barber’s big night when it mattered most. His baseline drive with 2:26 remaining gave the Seminoles a 75-71 lead.
The Wolfpack missed their final three shots, but did get a pair of Barber free throws with 46 ticks to play before Hamilton burned a timeout to set up the game-clinching possession.
“I was just told to sit in the middle and find the soft spot,” said Bacon, who found it near the free throw line and delivered a high-arching turnaround jumper. “That’s what I did…It’s just a shot I’m most comfortable with.”
While FSU’s star freshmen continue to lead, there were contributions from all corners. Xavier Rathan-Mayes chipped in nine points and Boris Bojanovsky added eight points and nine rebounds. Fellow senior Montay Brandon enjoyed his most productive game of the season with seven points, four rebounds and five assists, while classmate Devon Bookert had six points and three assists.
Freshman Terance Mann added seven points and four rebounds as the Noles won the battle on the boards 34-28.
“We know our roles now,” Beasley said. “Quez, Boris, Benji and Montay – all the role players - are stepping up and doing what they have to do and that’s helping us a lot.”
That was evident to Beasley as he watched from the bench much of the first half after picking up two early fouls.
“I was talking to one of the managers and said, ‘It’s crazy that all of us have at least five points now,’” Beasley said. “It’s amazing to see how much depth we have and how much contributions we have from each player.”
The Seminoles turned in one of their finest defensive halves of basketball this season through the first 20 minutes, limiting the Wolfpack to 35 percent shooting from the floor and piling up the vast majority of their 20 deflections. That performance, reminiscent of FSU’s “Junkyard Dog” defensive days in 2010 and 2011, helped the Seminoles open up a 38-26 halftime lead.
“That was about as good as we have played all year,” Hamilton said of his teams’ first half defense. “I thought that we got deflections, we created indecision on their part with contested shots, rebounding. We turned some of our good defensive play into offense for us. That's what we've been trying to do all year.”
There were three lead changes and a tie in the first six minutes of the contest before the Noles put together a 14-2 run, with Montay Brandon igniting the fuse with back-to-back drives to the basket. With Devon Bookert and Benji Bell sandwiching 3-pointers around an NC State basket, the Noles’ extended their lead on a runner by Terance Mann and Jarquez Smith’s hook shot from the low post for a 22-10 lead they refused to relinquish.
NC State briefly pulled within eight before FSU countered with a 12-4 burst which Bacon began with a dunk and ended with a 3-pointer for a 36-20 cushion, its largest of the night.
“The first half, their pressure and trapping, it’s kind of like PeeWee basketball, if you’ve got a good player you just go double-team him all the time,” Wolfpack coach Mark Gottfried said. “That’s kind of what Leonard did with Cat and we didn’t handle it very well. We turned the ball over. We had our forwards bringing the ball up the floor. We were out of synch and out of rhythm.”
The Wolfpack turned the ball over eight times as the Seminoles disrupted the visitors with backcourt pressure. The back end of FSU’s defense also created problems with Boris Bojanovsky and Smith contributing two blocked shots each. Smith’s pair came against beefy Wolpack forward BeeJay Anya on the same possession, sparking the Seminoles’ initial scoring run.
“They’ve got length at the basket that kind of bothers you at times,” Gottfried added. “Defensively they are as good and athletic as anybody we’ve played this year. Their defense really bothered us in the first half…We looked like the Bad News Bears out there.”
NO NAME GS MIN FGM FGA 3FGM 3FGA FTM FTA PTS OREB DREB REB PF AST TO BLK STL
== ==================== == === === === ==== ==== === === === ==== ==== === == === == === ===
4 Dwayne Bacon g 31 8 17 2 5 2 2 20 0 2 2 2 1 2 0 1
5 Malik Beasley g 30 4 10 1 5 6 6 15 1 5 6 2 3 1 0 0
15 Boris Bojanovsky c 25 4 5 0 0 0 1 8 2 7 9 1 0 0 3 1
22 Xavier Rathan-Mayes g 25 4 8 1 3 0 0 9 0 2 2 1 1 4 0 0
32 Montay Brandon g 27 3 3 0 0 1 4 7 2 2 4 2 5 0 0 0
1 Devon Bookert 24 2 6 2 5 0 2 6 0 2 2 2 3 0 0 0
3 Benji Bell 11 1 3 1 3 0 0 3 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
14 Terance Mann 11 3 3 1 1 0 0 7 1 3 4 3 2 1 1 1
21 Christ Koumadje 3 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 0
23 Jarquez Smith 13 1 2 0 0 0 0 2 1 2 3 2 0 2 3 0
Team 1 1
=========================================================================
FSU 5 200 30 57 8 22 9 15 77 9 25 34 15 15 10 7 3
Opp 200 27 57 8 20 11 17 73 7 21 28 14 13 10 3 5
| 1 | 2 | Total | |
|---|---|---|---|
| North Carolina State | |||
| Florida State |
From the FSU Website, seminoles.com.
Noles Defeat Deacs As Bookert Hits Career Milestone.
By Billy Clark, Seminoles.com Correspondent
WINSTON-SALEM, NC - Florida State earned its fourth straight conference victory Saturday after a 91 –71 victory over the Wake Forest Demon Deacons.
It was a game of runs for much of the early portion of the contest, but the Seminoles (16-7, 6-5) pulled away from the Demon Deacons (10-13, 1-10) and cruised to a double-digit victory. The game marks the first time Florida State has reeled off four consecutive ACC wins since 2012.
Malik Beasley led the Seminoles with 16 points on 6-for-11 shooting, continuing his double-digit scoring streak. Guards Montay Brandon and Xavier Rathan-Mayes each threw in 13 points. All five Seminole starters finished in double figures as the team shot 50 percent from the floor, 42 percent from 3-point range.
Just over seven minutes into the game, Devon Bookert connected on a 3-point attempt that saw him become a member of the 1,000 career point club. Bookert finished with nine points, all from beyond the arc.
The turning point came at the 10-minute mark of the second half, as guard Benji Bell came off the bench and hit two quick three-pointers to rejuvenate the Seminole offense and open up a 10-point lead. After a Wake Forest basket, Bell found Beasley alone in the corner to put the Noles up 66-55, their largest lead of the game at the time.
Bell was the catalyst the Seminoles needed to put the game away. While he finished with just nine points and two assists, he opened things up for the offense at critical moments and gave the Noles a lead that they would hold for good.
As the Seminoles pulled away, it was the defense that sealed the victory. Wake Forest forward Devin Thomas finished with 11 points and 10 rebounds, and was the focus of the game for the Seminoles.
“We needed all five guys to stop Thomas. We executed our game plan very well,” FSU coach Leonard Hamilton said.
The contest was heated in the first half, as neither team led by more than three in the first half until the Demon Deacons opened a two-possession lead with 3:50 to go in the opening period.
With over a minute left in the half, the Seminoles took the lead when Beasley took a missed Wake Forest shot the length of the court and laid it up in transition to put the Noles up, 34-33. Florida State went on an 8-0 run to end the first half to enter the break with a 37-33 advantage.
“We got the stops we needed and led to transition buckets,” Hamilton said. “We are at our best running.”
The Noles were able to force 13 Demon Deacon turnovers, and scored 14 points off of those turnovers.
Both teams were efficient as the Seminoles (44 percent from the floor) and Wake (42 percent) traded shot-for-shot in the first half. However, Wake Forest finished at just 35 percent shooting as the Seminole defense hunkered down.
Wake Forest’s Cornelius Hudson came off the bench to lead his team with a game-high 17 points. Codi Miller-McIntyre finished with 12 points, four rebounds and seven assists.
Bacon finished with 11 points and six rebounds. Center Boris Bojanovsky added 11 points, seven boards and a block.
NO NAME GS MIN FGM FGA 3FGM 3FGA FTM FTA PTS OREB DREB REB PF AST TO BLK STL
== ==================== == === === === ==== ==== === === === ==== ==== === == === == === ===
4 Dwayne Bacon g 26 5 14 0 3 1 2 11 1 5 6 2 1 0 0 1
5 Malik Beasley g 32 6 11 3 5 1 1 16 0 3 3 2 0 2 0 1
15 Boris Bojanovsky c 25 5 7 0 0 1 2 11 3 4 7 3 1 0 1 1
22 Xavier Rathan-Mayes g 29 4 11 0 2 5 7 13 0 0 0 2 3 0 0 0
32 Montay Brandon g 21 4 6 0 0 5 7 13 4 2 6 4 0 1 0 1
1 Devon Bookert 24 3 8 3 7 0 0 9 0 2 2 2 5 1 0 1
3 Benji Bell 10 3 5 3 5 0 0 9 0 2 2 1 2 0 0 0
14 Terance Mann 18 2 4 0 1 0 0 4 1 0 1 1 2 0 0 1
21 Christ Koumadje 5 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 2 1 0 1 1 0
23 Jarquez Smith 8 1 1 0 0 0 0 2 0 3 3 3 0 1 0 0
31 Michael Saxton 2 1 1 1 1 0 0 3 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Team 3 2 5
=========================================================================
FSU 5 200 34 68 10 24 13 19 91 12 25 37 21 14 6 2 6
Opp 200 23 51 7 20 18 25 71 6 24 30 18 15 13 3 3
| 1 | 2 | Total | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Florida State | |||
| Wake Forest |
From the FSU Website, seminoles.com.
Hot Second Half Pushes Syracuse Past Noles.
By Tim Linafelt, Seminoles.com Senior Writer
SYRACUSE, NY – The worst seemed to be over.
After falling behind by 14 midway through the first half, the Florida State men’s basketball team rallied and seized momentum after Devon Bookert beat the buzzer with a 3-pointer and cut the Seminoles’ deficit to three.
And then the second half happened.
Aided by a string of FSU turnovers, the Orange opened the second period on a dizzying run, scoring 16 of the period’s first 19 points on the way to an 85-72 victory in front of 22,056 fans here at the Carrier Dome.
Bookert had a team-high 15 points and five assists and Malik Beasley added 14 for FSU, which saw its four-game winning streak snapped. The Seminoles will look to bounce back Sunday at home in a rematch with the Miami Hurricanes (6:30 p.m., ESPNU).
“I just thought we had a little momentum going into the second half,” Bookert said. “So I thought it would be a much different result.”
Instead, the Orange did something that at the time seemed almost impossible: It shot even better in the second half than it did in the first. Syracuse made 65 percent (15 of 23) of its field goal attempts in the second half and finished at 62 percent for the game.
That’s a far cry from Syracuse’s usual average, which was one of the worst in the ACC (41.8 percent) heading into Thursday’s game.
In fact, the Orange entered the contest as the only major-conference team in the country to not shoot better than 50 percent in a game this season.
But that changed in a big way on Thursday night.
“They shot such a high percentage it didn’t allow us to say in stay in the game,” Beasley said. “They’re fantastic at shooting difficult shots, but it was our defense – or lack of – that made their percentage so much higher.”
Syracuse’s ability to beat defenders off the dribble and make pull-up jumpers caused issues for the Seminoles.
But Bookert and Beasley each blamed FSU’s defensive struggles on a lack of energy.
“It surprised me because of the importance of this game,” Bookert said. “I thought that we would’ve played much harder than we did.”
Earlier this week, FSU said it planned to attack the middle of Syracuse’s 2-3 zone defense while also looking to capitalize on as many transition opportunities as possible.
While the Seminoles scored 28 points off of turnovers and 36 points in the paint, a lack of defensive intensity limited their fast-break opportunities.
And given time to settle into their vaunted 2-3 zone defense, the Orange bottled up FSU’s half-court offense. The Seminoles finished just 41.3 percent from the field, their lowest output in a loss in more than a month.
“All the things that we had in our gameplan, for whatever reason, we just didn’t get it done offensively tonight,” Hamilton said. “I thought their defense was excellent. It kept us passing the ball around the perimeter.
“We had a very difficult time penetrating into the lane, their experience showed tonight and our inexperience showed.”
The Seminoles continued to be an enigma at the free-throw line, too.
After shooting 60 percent or better at the line in their last five games, that number felt to 54.5 percent on Thursday. And that’s only after bouncing back from a 5 of 11 effort in the first half.
“We missed enough free throws in the first half that we could’ve been up four or five,” Hamilton said. “But it wasn’t as much about what we didn’t do as what they did. They did an excellent job defending us, like they always do.”
Dwayne Bacon (11 points) and Xavier Rathan-Mayes (10) joined Bookert and Beasley in double-figures, but no one on FSU’s roster had a second half to remember.
FSU made only nine of its 26 field goal attempts in the final 20 minutes, and was just two of 10 from 3-point range.
“I thought in the second half, the difference was we didn’t let them have any open 3s,” Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim said. “After a while, by the time they got an open one, they were not in rhythm.”
The Orange improved to 6-2 since Boeheim returned from an NCAA suspension. They’ll visit Tallahassee on March 5 for the final game of the regular season.
Boeheim said that while Thursday’s game finished with a lopsided final score, he was still impressed with FSU’s roster and expects a tougher challenge next month.
“We got them down and that’s it,” he said. “They’re a really good team and they’ve got really good players.
“And I know it will be a lot different down there.”
NO NAME GS MIN FGM FGA 3FGM 3FGA FTM FTA PTS OREB DREB REB PF AST TO BLK STL
== ==================== == === === === ==== ==== === === === ==== ==== === == === == === ===
4 Dwayne Bacon g 29 3 10 0 2 5 8 11 2 2 4 2 2 2 0 1
5 Malik Beasley g 36 5 18 4 9 0 0 14 2 0 2 1 3 1 0 3
15 Boris Bojanovsky c 20 2 3 0 0 1 2 5 4 3 7 2 0 1 1 0
22 Xavier Rathan-Mayes g 30 3 9 2 7 2 3 10 1 1 2 1 5 4 0 2
32 Montay Brandon g 18 1 3 0 0 0 0 2 1 1 2 4 0 2 0 0
1 Devon Bookert 27 5 9 2 5 3 3 15 2 2 4 3 5 2 0 3
3 Benji Bell 13 1 4 0 3 1 2 3 0 0 0 1 0 2 0 0
14 Terance Mann 16 4 4 0 0 0 4 8 2 1 3 3 0 0 0 1
23 Jarquez Smith 11 2 3 0 0 0 0 4 0 0 0 3 0 1 1 0
Team 3 1 4
=========================================================================
FSU 5 200 26 63 8 26 12 22 72 17 11 28 20 15 15 2 10
Opp 200 31 50 8 17 15 21 85 10 25 35 19 15 20 4 9
| 1 | 2 | Total | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Florida State | |||
| Syracuse |
From the FSU Website, seminoles.com.
Seminoles Drop Heartbreaker To Miami, 67-65.
By Tim Linafelt, Seminoles.com Senior Writer
TALLAHASSEE, FL – Given the circumstances, Leonard Hamilton could not have asked for a better scenario at the end of Sunday’s game against No. 10 Miami.
With FSU down by one and 47 seconds to go, freshman star Dwayne Bacon took the ball down the floor looking to perhaps add to his collection of game-winning shots.
But Bacon, who hit winners against Florida and NC State earlier this year, never got the chance. After crossing half-court, Bacon passed to sophomore guard Xavier Rathan-Mayes, who then lost control and kicked the ball while dribbling to his left.
Senior guard Devon Bookert corralled it, but with the clock winding down, he threw up a desperate 3-pointer that missed long.
Then, after a Miami free throw, Malik Beasley’s running 30-footer went wide to seal a 67-65 defeat.
FSU fell to 16-9, 6-7 in the ACC while the Hurricanes improved to 20-4, 9-3.
“As the game was winding down, we felt that we could not have been in a better position, down one with a guy who's won two games with us with the ball in his hands,” Hamilton said. “Unfortunately, it didn't turn out the way we wanted it.”
Hamilton said he would’ve liked for Bacon to have kept the ball and attempted the shot, and that he felt Bacon might have been a little too crowded on the floor.
As for the two timeouts left in his pocket, Hamilton said he didn’t want to stop the game just to draw up the same situation – Bacon with the ball for a chance at a game-winner.
“I thought we were very fortunate to be in that position,” he said.
Indeed, the Seminoles never led after midway point of the first half, but rallied from a double-digit deficit in the second half to stay in range.
And they did it while their two freshmen stars, Bacon and Beasley, struggled through the toughest combined outing of their careers.
Bacon scored nine and Beasley just six for their lowest combined output of the season. Beasley had scored in double-figures of every game this season and Bacon had done it in every game of ACC play.
Beasley finished just 2 of 10 from the field.
“Beasley is normally a lights out shooter and he’s great in the open court,” Miami coach Jim Larranaga said. “We actually took away some of their fast breaks by fouling them, which then may have been a good strategy. I'll have to go back and look at that.
“They're so good in the open court, you can't give those guys a chance to get layups or dunks because that gets them going. Our guys did a great job on both of the freshmen.”
Bookert finished with 14 points to lead FSU in scoring for the second straight game. Rathan-Mayes added 12 but no other Seminole reached double figures.
Meanwhile senior center Boris Bojanovsky had one of his better games of the year with eight points, five rebounds and five blocks.
He was so effective down low that Larranaga eventually adjusted Miami’s offensive game plan to draw him out of the paint.
“When we went to the basket, Bojanovsky just blocked everything,” he said.
Then again, FSU had its own struggles near the basket.
Playing primarily with a four-guard lineup, the Seminoles actually outscored Miami in the paint, 26-22, but only drew nine free-throw attempts.
And they made only four of those attempts to finish below 50 percent from the line for the second straight game.
Miami made 16 of its 22 attempts.
“I was very concerned that we couldn't get to the free-throw line,” Hamilton said. “I thought we kept driving, trying to take the ball inside. I look down and see they went to the line 22 times and we went nine. It's obvious that we need to be a little more aggressive taking the ball to the basket.
“That looks like it probably made the difference in the game, our inability to get to the free throw line and hit our free throws.”
Up next for the Seminoles is a home date with Georgia Tech on Wednesday at 9 p.m.
The Yellow Jackets have lost seven of their last nine games.
“Nobody understands how hurt we are. Everybody in the locker room is hurt,” Bojanovsky said. “But it’s either going to break us or make us, this loss.We’ve got to keep going from here.”
NO NAME GS MIN FGM FGA 3FGM 3FGA FTM FTA PTS OREB DREB REB PF AST TO BLK STL
== ==================== == === === === ==== ==== === === === ==== ==== === == === == === ===
4 Dwayne Bacon g 21 3 7 2 3 1 1 9 1 5 6 3 1 1 0 1
5 Malik Beasley g 29 2 10 0 4 2 4 6 1 2 3 1 2 1 0 1
15 Boris Bojanovsky c 27 4 6 0 0 0 0 8 0 5 5 4 0 3 5 1
22 Xavier Rathan-Mayes g 30 5 11 2 4 0 0 12 0 0 0 2 3 4 0 1
32 Montay Brandon g 19 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 2 1 1 0 0 0
1 Devon Bookert 29 5 8 3 5 1 3 14 1 1 2 3 2 1 0 3
3 Benji Bell 15 2 7 2 4 0 0 6 0 1 1 2 1 0 0 0
14 Terance Mann 17 2 4 0 0 0 1 4 0 4 4 0 1 1 0 0
21 Christ Koumadje 4 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 3 0 2 1 0
23 Jarquez Smith 9 3 3 0 0 0 0 6 1 1 2 2 0 0 0 0
Team 2 2 4
=========================================================================
FSU 5 200 26 57 9 20 4 9 65 6 24 30 21 11 13 6 7
Opp 200 21 55 9 24 16 22 67 11 27 38 17 13 13 5 5
| 1 | 2 | Total | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Miami | |||
| Florida State |
From the FSU Website, seminoles.com.
Seminoles Fall To Georgia Tech 86-80.
By Tim Linafelt, Seminoles.com Senior Writer
TALLAHASSEE, FL – The Florida State men’s basketball team was 30 seconds away from what might have been a season-defining comeback.
Instead, the Seminoles were dealt another painful loss.
After a lethargic and disjointed start led to a 17-point deficit against Georgia Tech, FSU mounted a dizzying rally and cut its deficit to just two points with 24.1 seconds to go.
But the Yellow Jackets then made four straight free throws and the Seminoles ran out of time in an 86-80 defeat at the Donald L. Tucker Center.
The loss is FSU’s third straight and places an even brighter spotlight on the season’s final four regular season games: at Virginia Tech, at Duke, vs. Notre Dame and vs. Syracuse.
The Seminoles (16-10, 6-8 ACC) visit the Hokies (13-13, 5-8) Saturday at 3 p.m.
“We don’t have a lot of room for error,” said senior guard Devon Bookert, who scored 15 points. “So we’ve got to be urgent, because we only have a couple more games left.”
FSU coach Leonard Hamilton warned the day before the game that the Yellow Jackets (14-12, 4-9) were much better than their record indicated.
And for more than 30 minutes, they proved him right.
Tech shot nearly 55 percent from the field in the first half, including 4-for-10 from 3-point range, to take a nine-point lead at halftime.
Thanks to a heavy rebounding advantage – the Jackets outrebounded FSU 32-25 and grabbed 12 offensive boards – that lead ballooned in the second half.
The Seminoles’ defense struggled to contain Tech’s guard combo of Marcus Georges-Hunt (27 points) and Adam Smith (25), and, on several occasions when they did get a stop, the Jackets made them pay with an offensive rebound.
Tech finished with only 10 second-chance points, but they came at opportune times. Twice in the second half, the Seminoles forced errant attempts as the shot-clocked wound down, only to see the Jackets grab the rebound and kick it out for an open 3-pointer.
All told, Georgia Tech finished 9 of 21 from 3-point range.
“One of our points of emphasis was that we had to keep them off the offensive boards,” Hamilton said. “They're one of the top rebounding teams in the country. We felt that if we executed our block outs we could at least hold our own on the boards.
“We got stops but each time we got a stop they were able to go and get an offensive possession. If they had nine 3s, I would say three or four of them were after they had missed a shot and got a rebound and kicked it out and got a high-percentage shot.”
With the freshmen duo of Malik Beasley and Dwayne Bacon having another tough offensive night, the Seminoles had a hard time keeping pace on the offensive end.
Bacon finished with 10 points but made just 3 of 14 shot attempts. Beasley added nine.
In their steady freshman Terance Mann came off the bench for a career-high 18 points and five rebounds.
Hamilton admitted that fatigue can sometimes be challenge at this stage of the season – especially for younger players – but didn’t want that to be an excuse for Wednesday’s performance.
“Philosophically, you can come up with some way to hang your hat. But in reality, these kids play a lot of basketball,” he said. “The bottom line is this is what they love doing, and we have to find a way to come out and lay it on the line every night. That's life in the ACC.”
NO NAME GS MIN FGM FGA 3FGM 3FGA FTM FTA PTS OREB DREB REB PF AST TO BLK STL
== ==================== == === === === ==== ==== === === === ==== ==== === == === == === ===
4 Dwayne Bacon g 23 3 14 0 4 4 7 10 1 6 7 2 0 0 0 0
5 Malik Beasley g 32 3 6 0 2 3 4 9 0 3 3 5 2 1 0 1
15 Boris Bojanovsky c 19 4 5 0 0 2 2 10 2 0 2 1 0 1 0 1
22 Xavier Rathan-Mayes g 31 4 8 0 1 4 4 12 0 1 1 5 6 1 0 1
32 Montay Brandon g 6 0 1 0 0 2 2 2 0 0 0 4 0 0 0 0
1 Devon Bookert 35 5 9 3 5 2 2 15 1 1 2 3 3 4 0 1
3 Benji Bell 8 0 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 0 0 0
14 Terance Mann 30 6 7 1 1 5 6 18 2 3 5 3 1 1 0 2
23 Jarquez Smith 16 2 3 0 0 0 0 4 2 2 4 1 0 1 1 0
Team 1 1
=========================================================================
FSU 5 200 27 55 4 13 22 27 80 8 17 25 25 13 9 1 6
Opp 200 28 52 9 21 21 30 86 12 20 32 20 16 14 4 1
| 1 | 2 | Total | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Georgia Tech | |||
| Florida State |
From the FSU Website, seminoles.com.
Bacon Catches Fire But Noles Fall Short At Virginia Tech.
By Billy Clark, Seminoles.com Correspondent
BLACKSBURG, VA - Dwayne Bacon found his shot, but it was not enough as Florida fell to the Virginia Tech Hokies, 83-73, in Blacksburg, Va.
“I thought we played some pretty good basketball for about 34 minutes, but unfortunately the game is 40 minutes,” FSU coach Leonard Hamilton said after the game.
The Seminoles led for nearly the entire game until the Hokies took control in the final minutes.
Virginia Tech’s Seth Allen scored a game-high 23 points (4-5 from 3-point range) and grabbed five rebounds. After the game, Hamilton called Allen a “one-man wrecking ball.”
Bacon led the Seminoles with 22 points, shooting 50 percent for the game.
Bacon, who had previously averaged just 25 percent from outside the arc, connected on four of six outside shots in just one half, helping the Seminoles open up a 17-7 lead less than six minutes into the game. Bacon had 16 first-half points while sitting the last few minutes with two fouls.
The loss is FSU’s fourth straight during a critical juncture in the season. The Seminoles have a trip to Duke followed by Notre Dame and Syracuse at home before the ACC Tournament in Washington, D.C.
Florida State (16-11, 6-9) entered halftime up 45-37 over the Hokies (14-13, 6-8), leading by as many as 11 points in the opening period.
That lead would not be enough to stop a Hokie comeback. Virginia Tech made the first shot of the game, but did not lead again until taking a 67-66 lead with 4:31 left in the game, a lead that it never relinquished.
With just under 11 minutes to go, Virginia Tech closed the gap to five and began to mount a rally. Allen had to leave the game briefly after a collision with Boris Bojanovsky, but returned and showed no ill effects.
Bacon connected on his fifth 3-pointer with 9:36 remaining on the clock, his first made field goal of the second half. Down just six, the Hokies made two free throws before a Bacon hustle rebound and putback got the Noles back up six again.
Then, Tech’s Jalen Hudson hit a 3-pointer followed by a Devin Wilson layup that closed the Seminole lead to just one with just under eight minutes to go.
After a missed FSU layup, Allen took the ball coast-to-coast to put the Hokies up 67-66 with 4:31 on the clock. That was all the Hokies needed.
A pair of opportune 3-pointers from Justin Robinson gave the Hokies a six-point lead with 2:01 to go. Robinson finished with 13 points, 3-of-3 from outside the arc.
After trading free throws, Allen drained a 3-point shot on a well-executed play to put the Hokies up nine and effectively seal the Seminoles’ fate.
“I thought (Virginia Tech) did a very good job of staying focused, even though they were behind; they kept clawing and scratching,” Hamilton said. “I think both teams played hard and gave tremendous effort. I just think, during that critical period in the second half, they mounted a charge and we didn’t answer it.”
Malik Beasley had a good afternoon with 11 points and eight rebounds, but was unusually inefficient as he shot just 3 for 12 from the floor. Xavier Rathan-Mayes contributed 14 points (4-for-9), two boards and two steals.
Bojanovsky had a successful day in the post, both in putting back missed shots and going up on his own. He had 11 points, six rebounds and four blocks before a collision with VT’s Allen forced both of them to head to the locker room. Bojanovsky later returned, although Jarquez Smith threw in eight points and four rebounds in his absence.
NO NAME GS MIN FGM FGA 3FGM 3FGA FTM FTA PTS OREB DREB REB PF AST TO BLK STL
== ==================== == === === === ==== ==== === === === ==== ==== === == === == === ===
4 Dwayne Bacon g 30 8 16 5 10 1 2 22 1 2 3 3 1 3 0 0
5 Malik Beasley g 33 3 12 2 6 3 4 11 4 4 8 4 2 3 0 1
15 Boris Bojanovsky c 20 5 6 0 0 1 1 11 1 5 6 2 0 1 4 0
22 Xavier Rathan-Mayes g 30 4 9 0 3 6 8 14 0 2 2 4 1 1 0 2
32 Montay Brandon g 27 0 2 0 0 1 2 1 2 5 7 0 2 0 0 0
1 Devon Bookert 24 1 7 0 4 2 2 4 1 1 2 3 1 1 0 0
3 Benji Bell 7 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 1 0 0
14 Terance Mann 12 0 0 0 0 2 2 2 0 1 1 1 0 0 0 0
21 Christ Koumadje 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0
23 Jarquez Smith 15 4 5 0 0 0 0 8 2 2 4 3 0 1 0 1
Team 1 1 2 1
=========================================================================
FSU 5 200 25 57 7 23 16 21 73 12 23 35 21 9 12 4 4
Opp 200 28 53 11 19 16 27 83 8 21 29 20 11 10 2 7
| 1 | 2 | Total | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Florida State | |||
| Virginia Tech |
From the FSU Website, seminoles.com.
Noles Fall At Duke, 80-65
By Tim Linafelt, Seminoles.com Senior Writer
DURHAM, NC – A cold shooting start from the Duke Blue Devils opened a slight window for Florida State to potentially pull off an upset.
The Blue Devils then heated up and shut that window in a hurry.
Duke started 0 for 9 from the floor and made just four of its first 20 shots. But the Seminoles couldn’t take advantage and, once Duke’s shooters got going, couldn’t keep up in an 80-65 loss at Cameron Indoor Stadium.
The Seminoles will look (16-12, 6-10 ACC) to snap a five-game skid on Saturday when they host No. 23 Notre Dame (4 p.m., ESPN2).
“This was a very difficult matchup for us, we knew that coming in,” FSU coach Leonard Hamilton said. “...We had them shooting a reasonable field-goal percentage, but we obviously turned the ball over, missed some layups and couldn’t hit free throws.
“We were down 13 at the half and we thought that we played defense about as well as we could, under the circumstances, with who we are this particular year.”
The Seminoles finished with a better shooting percentage, more rebounds and more points in the paint than the Blue Devils.
But they were undone in large part thanks to 15 turnovers – on which Duke capitalized for 16 points – and a heavy Duke advantage on the offensive glass.
Although FSU finished with a 36-34 rebounding edge, the Blue Devils grabbed 14 offensive boards and converted 15 second-chance points.
“That just killed us,” freshman guard Dwayne Bacon said. “Killed us a lot. We shot better, rebounded better. It’s just offensive rebounds killed us, big time.”
After their 4-for-20 start, the Blue Devils closed the half by making 10 of their next 15 attempts. That coincided with a 27-12 run that turned a one-point FSU lead into a 13-point deficit at halftime.
The Seminoles, meanwhile, shot 50 percent (27-54) from the floor, but attempted 11 fewer shots than the Blue Devils.
Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski said the Blue Devils found success by limiting FSU’s hurrying back on defense and limiting FSU’s opportunities for quick points in transition.
“When you miss – and we missed a lot – they really can bring the ball down,” Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski said. “We did a good job of making them a half-court team.”
Added senior guard Devon Bookert: “They put four men back when we were taking the up the ball so we couldn’t sprint the ball up. They just did little clever stuff to try to slow us down.”
Bacon posted 12 points and 10 rebounds for his fourth double-double of the season, and sophomore Xavier Rathan-Mayes added a team-high 13 points. But the guard tandem also combined for nine turnovers against just one assist.
Duke committed only five giveaways and also held a heavy advantage at the free-throw line, where it made 15 of 20 attempts. The Seminoles finished 6 of 11 at the line.
“We didn’t really take care of the ball in the first half and I think that was the difference,” said Bookert, who scored 10 points and made two of FSU’s five 3-pointers.
“We shot a pretty good percentage, but how we took care of the ball, I think, was the difference in the game.”
FSU’s road ahead gets a little bit easier, but not by much.
The Seminoles will close the regular season with home games against Notre Dame and Syracuse.
While those games promise to be difficult – the Fighting Irish boast the league’s top offenses, and Syracuse posted a decisive win over FSU earlier this month – Bacon believes they also provide the Seminoles an opportunity to finish strong.
“We’ve just got to keep fighting, don’t give up,” Bacon said. “It’s never too late to make our run. We can make a run from these last two home game and take it to Washington, D.C., for the ACC tournament. And who knows what we can do there?”
NO NAME GS MIN FGM FGA 3FGM 3FGA FTM FTA PTS OREB DREB REB PF AST TO BLK STL
== ==================== == === === === ==== ==== === === === ==== ==== === == === == === ===
4 Dwayne Bacon g 34 5 11 0 1 2 4 12 2 8 10 2 0 4 0 1
5 Malik Beasley g 34 4 13 1 6 0 0 9 1 3 4 2 1 2 0 0
15 Boris Bojanovsky c 9 1 1 0 0 0 0 2 2 1 3 4 0 0 0 1
22 Xavier Rathan-Mayes g 19 4 6 1 1 4 7 13 0 4 4 2 1 5 0 1
32 Montay Brandon g 16 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 2 2 1 0 1 0
1 Devon Bookert 34 4 8 2 5 0 0 10 0 1 1 0 3 1 0 0
3 Benji Bell 4 1 2 1 1 0 0 3 0 0 0 1 0 1 0 0
14 Terance Mann 19 2 3 0 0 0 0 4 2 2 4 4 2 1 0 0
21 Christ Koumadje 9 2 2 0 0 0 0 4 0 0 0 1 0 0 1 0
23 Jarquez Smith 22 4 8 0 0 0 0 8 3 4 7 3 0 1 2 0
Team 1 1
=========================================================================
FSU 5 200 27 54 5 14 6 11 65 10 26 36 21 8 15 4 3
Opp 200 28 65 9 26 15 20 80 14 20 34 14 16 5 2 10
| 1 | 2 | Total | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Florida State | |||
| Duke |
From the FSU Website, seminoles.com.
Florida State Tops No. 20 Notre Dame 77-56.
By Tim Linafelt, Seminoles.com Senior Writer
TALLAHASSEE, FL – Dwayne Bacon arrived in Florida State’s postgame interview room wearing a replica of Larry Bird’s bright green Boston Celtics jersey.
After some light teasing from his coach, Leonard Hamilton, Bacon laughed and said, “Nah, Coach, it’s the luck of the Irish.”
Maybe appropriate, given that Florida State hosted Notre Dame here on Saturday afternoon, but hardly fair to the outcome.
Led by Bacon’s 21 points and one of the best efforts of Boris Bojanovsky’s career, the Seminoles played their best game of the season in a 77-56 victory over No. 20 Notre Dame.
And there was nothing lucky about it.
The Seminoles (17-12, 7-10 ACC) bettered the Fighting Irish (19-9, 10-6) in every facet of the game. FSU outshot the Irish (48.6-35.7 percent), held a steady rebounding advantage (40-35) and took better care of the ball.
Even better, they gave perhaps their strongest defensive effort of the season. The Irish, which came into the game ranked No. 1 in offensive efficiency, shot just 28.6 percent in the second half on the way to their lowest point total of the season.
It marked an emphatic end to Florida State’s five-game losing streak and gave the Seminoles a boost of confidence headed into a welcome week off. FSU closes the regular season at home against Syracuse on March 5.
“There’s no doubt that we needed to feel good about ourselves,” Hamilton said. “This is a very important victory for us.”
Benji Bell scored 14 points on the strength of four 3-pointers, while Bojanovsky, Xavier Rathan-Mayes and Jarquez Smith each chipped in eight.
Bojanovsky contributed far beyond just the scoreboard. Matched up with Notre Dame center Zach Auguste, the ACC’s third-leading rebounder, Bojanovsky more than held his own.
Along with his eight points, Bojanovsky added nine rebounds and six blocked shots that stifled the Irish and often left Auguste visibly frustrated, despite his 17 boards and 12 points.
“I think their shot-blocking demoralized us,” Notre Dame coach Mike Brey said. “…They blocked seven (total). And they changed probably six. When you can't get any of those (easy shots) that kind of make you feel good, God, that demoralizes you.”
FSU, meanwhile, seemed to get whatever it wanted on offense.
The Seminoles dominated on the perimeter – where they made a season-high 11 3-pointers – scored 20 points in the paint and also got mid-range contributions from the likes of Bacon and Rathan-Mayes.
And the offense worked in concert with the defense, converting 11 Notre Dame turnovers into 17 points.
“We played great defense. Outstanding defense,” Bacon said. “We moved the ball on offense. If we do that, we can win any game. We did that perfect tonight.”
In finishing off the Irish, the Seminoles flipped the script from some previous painful losses.
Twice this season – against Pittsburgh and Virginia Tech – FSU squandered big halftime leads on the way to unlikely defeats.
Up 16 at the break against the Irish, the Seminoles were determined not to let it happen again.
“The whole time in the locker room at halftime was just speeches about not giving up. Not taking our foot off the gas,” Bacon said. “That's what we did against Pitt, that's what we did against Virginia Tech.”
But not this time.
After Notre Dame’s Demetrius Jackson started the second half with a 3-pointer, the Seminoles launched a quick 9-4 run that extended their lead to 20 points with 13:54 to go.
FSU never let up, but, with Notre Dame never threatening, there were plenty of moments for 7,819 fans in attendance to enjoy.
There was standing applause and chants of “Bo-ris!” when Bojanovksy checked out for a breather.
Then another round of cheers when senior walk-on Michael Saxton checked in with about two minutes to go. Then Saxton did his part by promptly draining a 3-pointer and giving an animated fistpump as he ran down the floor.
Then, finally, a full ovation as the clock ran out on one of FSU’s most satisfying – and unexpected – victories in recent memory.
“We've played moments where we played excellent, but we have not played this way for 40 minutes,” Hamilton said. “Hopefully this is something that we can continue to keep doing for the remainder of the season.”
There’s not much to that remainder, with just a home game against Syracuse left before the Seminoles head to the ACC tournament in Washington, D.C.
The Orange scored an easy victory over FSU earlier this month, but Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim said he expected a much more difficult test in Tallahassee.
If the Seminoles continue to play like they did today, it will be.
NO NAME GS MIN FGM FGA 3FGM 3FGA FTM FTA PTS OREB DREB REB PF AST TO BLK STL
== ==================== == === === === ==== ==== === === === ==== ==== === == === == === ===
4 Dwayne Bacon g 32 7 11 3 5 4 4 21 1 3 4 1 3 1 0 0
5 Malik Beasley g 22 1 8 0 2 2 2 4 2 4 6 2 3 1 0 0
15 Boris Bojanovsky c 23 4 5 0 0 0 1 8 2 7 9 1 0 2 6 0
22 Xavier Rathan-Mayes g 16 4 7 0 2 0 0 8 0 3 3 2 3 1 0 1
32 Montay Brandon g 20 1 2 1 1 0 0 3 1 2 3 1 1 1 0 0
1 Devon Bookert 30 3 6 2 4 0 0 8 1 1 2 1 3 1 0 0
3 Benji Bell 25 5 15 4 9 0 1 14 0 1 1 1 2 0 0 2
14 Terance Mann 14 0 1 0 0 0 2 0 0 2 2 3 0 0 0 0
21 Christ Koumadje 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0
23 Jarquez Smith 14 3 5 0 0 2 2 8 1 5 6 1 0 0 1 0
31 Michael Saxton 2 1 2 1 1 0 0 3 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 0
Team 3 3
=========================================================================
FSU 5 200 29 62 11 24 8 12 77 12 28 40 14 15 7 7 3
Opp 200 20 56 7 17 9 17 56 11 24 35 11 10 11 1 2
| 1 | 2 | Total | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Notre Dame | |||
| Florida State |
From the FSU Website, seminoles.com.
Beasley Heats Up As Noles Push Past Syracuse.
By Tim Linafelt, Seminoles.com Senior Writer
TALLAHASSEE, FL – Malik Beasley’s slump is over.
And, apparently, so is Florida State’s.
After scoring no more than 11 points in each of his last six games, Beasley dropped 20 on Saturday – 18 in the second half – to lead the Seminoles to a 78-73 victory over Syracuse at the Donald L. Tucker Center.
FSU finishes the regular season 18-12 (8-10 ACC) after back-to-back victories over Notre Dame and Syracuse.
The Seminoles look to sustain their momentum Tuesday in Washington, D.C., where they will face Boston College in the first round of the ACC tournament.
“Obviously we needed someone to make some shots from the perimeter to kind of loosen (Syracuse) up a little bit,” FSU coach Leonard Hamilton said. “The fact that Malik hit two or three shots, I thought he gained some confidence and it gave them an area of the floor that they had to cover.”
Syracuse (19-12, 9-9) led by four at halftime, but Beasley erased that lead in a hurry with three straight 3-pointers in the span of just one minute, 44 seconds.
His last 3-pointer gave FSU a 40-38 lead and the Seminoles never trailed again.
“It was nice to get my confidence back,” Beasley said. “That first one wasn’t supposed to go in. I got fouled and they didn’t call it. But once I saw the ball go in, it was a confidence booster for me and the team.”
A back-in-form Beasley is welcome news for the Seminoles and a potentially frightening development for the rest of the ACC.
The star freshman shot just 29 percent (17 of 59) during FSU’s five-game losing streak last month, and was only 1 of 4 from the field last week against Notre Dame.
But Beasley on Saturday looked a lot more like the player who scored in double-figures in each of the season’s first 24 games.
“He’s a great shooter,” fellow freshman Dwayne Bacon said. “The last game, he had a bad shooting night, but he’s a great shooter, no matter what. Even the best shooters have bad shooting nights. Everybody was just looking at him because he was hot.”
With Beasley pulling Syracuse’s 2-3 zone toward the perimeter, FSU’s shooters found a soft spot near the free throw line.
Bacon, Jarquez Smith and Xavier Rathan-Mayes all did damage with mid-range jumpers, and the Seminoles made 60 percent of their two-point field goal attempts.
Bacon and Rathan-Mayes each scored 16 points, while Smith and Terance Mann chipped in eight apiece.
“They got in the lane, they did a better job moving, they made some shots,” Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim. “That was a big difference.”
So too was FSU’s 43-26 rebounding advantage, its biggest surplus since beating Boston College in January.
The Seminoles’ dominance on the glass allowed them nine second-chance points and also created some transition baskets that kept the Orange from settling into its half-court defense.
“Our defense and transition game allowed us to start running,” senior guard Devon Bookert said. “This time, we tried to move the ball around and did better in penetration.”
Beasley’s free throw stretched FSU’s lead to 71-61 with just 2:22 to go and the Seminoles appeared to be well on their way to a comfortable win.
But Syracuse immediately struck back for a 12-4 run that cut its deficit to 75-73 with 32 seconds to play.
Rathan-Mayes then missed a free-throw to ensure that Syracuse would have a chance to tie the game. But Syracuse’s Trevor Cooney – a 34-percent 3-point shooter – missed from range and Mann pulled down the rebound to seal the game.
Hamilton had just subbed in Mann before that sequence.
“You look pretty good when you put a guy back in and he goes and gets the rebound and brings the ball back out,” Hamilton said with a laugh.
Mann did a little bit of everything on Saturday, posting eight points, eight rebounds, three assists and a block.
FSU’s three seniors – Bookert, Boris Bojanovsky and Montay Brandon – were mostly quiet on the stat sheet after being honored in a pre-game ceremony for Senior Day.
But Bookert and Bojanovsky in particular contributed on defense and helped swing the game by chasing down loose balls and tipping out missed shots that led to extra offensive chances.
“Boris and Bookert, they did not allow their lack of offensive productivity to affect their energy and their execution on the defensive end,” Hamilton said. “They kept playing. That's what seniors are supposed to do.”
NO NAME GS MIN FGM FGA 3FGM 3FGA FTM FTA PTS OREB DREB REB PF AST TO BLK STL
== ==================== == === === === ==== ==== === === === ==== ==== === == === == === ===
1 Devon Bookert g 25 1 7 1 5 0 1 3 1 3 4 3 4 2 0 2
5 Malik Beasley g 25 7 12 3 5 3 4 20 1 5 6 0 2 4 0 1
15 Boris Bojanovsky c 21 0 2 0 0 3 4 3 4 4 8 4 1 3 2 1
31 Michael Saxton g 3 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 2 0 0 1 0 1
32 Montay Brandon g 15 0 0 0 0 0 2 0 1 1 2 1 3 3 0 2
3 Benji Bell 5 1 3 0 2 2 2 4 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
4 Dwayne Bacon 30 5 13 0 4 6 6 16 1 7 8 2 3 3 0 0
14 Terance Mann 21 4 5 0 1 0 0 8 2 6 8 2 3 1 1 0
22 Xavier Rathan-Mayes 36 6 13 3 7 1 2 16 1 0 1 4 3 2 0 3
23 Jarquez Smith 19 4 4 0 0 0 0 8 0 1 1 1 0 0 1 0
Team 1 2 3
=========================================================================
FSU 5 200 28 59 7 24 15 21 78 13 30 43 17 19 19 4 10
Opp 200 26 56 8 26 13 19 73 5 21 26 19 17 16 2 10
| 1 | 2 | Total | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Syracuse | |||
| Florida State |
From the FSU Website, seminoles.com.
Noles Crush BC In First Round Of ACC Tournament.
By Tim Linafelt, Seminoles.com Senior Writer
WASHINGTON, DC – With about four minutes to go in Florida State’s 88-66 win over Boston College here in the first round of the ACC men’s basketball tournament, Xavier Rathan-Mayes threw a pretty alley-oop off the backboard and into the waiting hands of Terance Mann.
Smith then easily finished the dunk to put an exclamation point on FSU’s third straight victory and send the Seminoles (19-12) into a second-round rematch with Virginia Tech (18-13) on Wednesday night.
Devon Bookert scored 15 points, Malik Beasley and Dwayne Bacon each added 13 and FSU got 45 points from its bench on the way to its largest margin of victory in an ACC tournament game.
Even better, coach Leonard Hamilton used 11 players on Tuesday afternoon, and no one logged more minutes than Beasley’s 28. Center Boris Bojanovsky, FSU’s most experienced and reliable post player, played for just 13 minutes.
“The quality of our depth obviously stepped up and allowed us to keep certain guys fresh,” Hamilton said. “In a tournament that you expect to be playing for a while, if you can get everybody involved, it extends your energy level and hopefully it will be a big difference as we continue to move through the tournament.”
After a back-and-forth start, the Seminoles seized control midway through the first half and broke the game open by scoring the first six points after the break.
FSU shot 59 percent from the field and finished a blistering 9 of 16 from beyond the arc.
That included three 3s from Bookert, who led the team in points (15), rebounds (4) and assists (4).
Meanwhile, an uphill climb for the Eagles (7-25) was made even more difficult when their two best players – guard Eli Carter and center Dennis Clifford – fell into foul trouble.
Clifford fouled out after posting 15 points and nine rebounds, and Carter scored 21 despite playing most of the second half with four fouls.
With the 7-foot Clifford on the bench, the Eagles went with a small lineup that allowed FSU to dominate in nearly every facet of the game. The Seminoles enjoyed a 42-38 rebounding advantage, scored 42 points in the paint (compared to 22 for BC) and converted 16 BC turnovers into 21 points.
"The more we ran our offense, the more their bigs got tired and the slower they started to move, which got me and the guards open at the same time,” said Jaquez Smith, who scored all nine of his points in the second half.
And as the Seminoles’ lead ballooned – up to 24 points at its largest – Hamilton steadily emptied his bench.
Guard Benji Bell (17 minutes) and center Chris Koumadje (10) both nearly doubled their average workload, and walk-on guard Michael Saxton checked in and hit a 3-pointer for the second straight game.
It made for plenty of smiles from FSU’s starters, who were happy to watch from the sidelines as the game reached its conclusion.
“Us producing helped big time,” Smith said. “Because we were able to stay in there and not get the starters back out there and tire them out.”
Although an emphatic first step, the Seminoles still have a big hill left to climb. And it gets much steeper on Wednesday.
FSU’s next opponent, Virginia Tech, is riding a five-game winning streak and is fresh off a 77-62 rout of No. 11 Miami last week.
The first win of that streak came at FSU’s expense in a game that still leaves a bitter taste in the Seminoles’ locker room.
FSU led the Hokies for more than 34 minutes and appeared primed to end what was then a three-game losing streak.
Instead, the Hokies turned the tables down the stretch and raced past the stunned Seminoles for an 83-73 win.
“I believe that we should’ve won the game up there,” Bojanovsky said.
Even still, the Seminoles said there is confidence that comes from being in control for so long.
And they know exactly what kind of effort is required if they’re going to advance to the tournament quarterfinals.
“We’ve just got to come together for a full 40 minutes,” Beasley said. “We know what we’ve got to do tomorrow, and we’re ready.”
NO NAME GS MIN FGM FGA 3FGM 3FGA FTM FTA PTS OREB DREB REB PF AST TO BLK STL
== ==================== == === === === ==== ==== === === === ==== ==== === == === == === ===
4 Dwayne Bacon g 26 5 9 2 3 1 1 13 1 3 4 2 0 4 0 0
5 Malik Beasley g 28 5 10 0 1 3 4 13 0 3 3 2 1 0 1 1
15 Boris Bojanovsky c 13 4 4 0 0 1 3 9 1 3 4 1 1 2 1 1
22 Xavier Rathan-Mayes g 26 2 8 1 4 1 2 6 0 0 0 2 4 1 0 2
32 Montay Brandon g 19 1 4 0 1 0 0 2 0 2 2 3 2 1 1 1
1 Devon Bookert 25 6 8 3 4 0 0 15 3 2 5 3 4 0 0 2
3 Benji Bell 17 2 3 2 2 4 7 10 0 2 2 2 3 0 0 1
14 Terance Mann 20 3 4 0 0 0 0 6 2 2 4 2 3 1 0 0
21 Christ Koumadje 10 1 1 0 0 0 1 2 1 2 3 1 0 2 0 0
23 Jarquez Smith 12 4 6 0 0 1 3 9 0 1 1 2 0 1 2 2
31 Michael Saxton 4 1 1 1 1 0 0 3 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Team 1 3 4
=========================================================================
FSU 5 200 34 58 9 16 11 21 88 9 23 32 20 18 12 5 10
Opp 200 22 49 6 18 16 22 66 6 22 28 19 13 16 0 7
| 1 | 2 | Total | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Florida State | |||
| Boston College |
From the FSU Website, seminoles.com.
Hokies Too Much For Noles In Second Round Of ACC Tournament.
By Tim Linafelt, Seminoles.com Senior Writer
WASHINGTON, DC – For a few brief stretches here on Tuesday night, the Florida State men’s basketball team looked like it might put a scare into Virginia Tech.
But each time FSU threatened to rally, the Hokies responded in kind.
Playing in front of what amounted to a home crowd – Virginia Tech’s campus is a little more than four hours from Washington – the Hokies took control by attacking the rim, and then held on in a marathon second half for a 96-85 victory over FSU in the second round of the ACC men’s basketball tournament.
The Seminoles (19-13) will return home to await their postseason fate, likely in the National Invitation Tournament. The Hokies (19-13), winners of six straight, advance to face Miami in Thursday’s quarterfinal.
“We had no answer for their quickness and speed,” FSU coach Leonard Hamiton said. “We showed moments where we’ve been a solid defensive team, but tonight we just had no answer for their ability to move the ball take us off the dribble without having very good rim protection or the ability to contain the dribble.
“That was our Achilles’ Heel.”
Devon Bookert scored 19 points and Jarquez Smith added 14 rebounds for the Seminoles, who had hoped that a deep run this week might springboard them into the NCAA tournament.
Instead, the Hokies ignited the crowd by starting the game on a 9-3 run and building their lead to 11 points midway through the first half.
And they did it by attacking the heart of FSU’s defense, with guards Seth Allen (20 points), Justin Robinson (18 points) and Justin Bibbs (16 points) doing most of the damage.
Finding little resistance on their way to the basket, the Hokies shot 60 percent in the first half and finished at 53.7 percent for the game.
“They exploited our inability to guard the ball. Period,” Hamilton said. “There were times we were in good stances but their quickness and speed allowed them get past us and get into the lane and make plays.”
“We couldn’t guard the ball,” freshman guard Dwayne Bacon said. “As a team. Not just one person. As a team. They were driving the whole game, getting whatever they wanted.”
The Seminoles, meanwhile, attacked mostly from the perimeter, where they attempted 8 of 29 3-point attempts.
After falling behind 30-19, FSU reeled off six quick points to cut VT's lead to two possessions, only to see the Hokies answer with a 15-5 run that stretched their lead back to double digits.
Bookert appeard to snatch back some momentum at the end of the first half, when he hit a falling 3-pointer at the buzzer that made it 45-38.
The Seminoles kept their deficit manageable for the early part of the second half, end even cut it to just five with 13:48 to go.
But Virginia Tech kept attacking, kept scoring and, with 8:25 to go, led by 17 points.
“Random things didn’t go our way,” Bookert said. “When we would start to get momentum, something would happen. Something difficult that we would have to get past.”
It didn’t help officials called a startling 53 fouls, 38 of which came in the second half.
That slowed the pace of the game – which already started nearly an hour late thanks to an overtime finish in the evening’s first game – to a crawl.
The constant whistles may have helped FSU by stopping the clock, but they also put a halt to any momentum the Seminoles might have built.
And the Seminoles struggled to take advantage of their opportunities at the line anyway. They made just 21 of their 35 free-throw attempts, compared to 30 of 37 for Virginia Tech.
By the time the game reached its conclusion, well past midnight, three players from each team had fouled out.
“It wasn’t the officials,” Hamilton said. “Sure, they called an awful lot of fouls. Some games they let you beat them up, some games they call the fouls. But the bottom line is we just didn’t do a very good job of containing the dribble.”
NO NAME GS MIN FGM FGA 3FGM 3FGA FTM FTA PTS OREB DREB REB PF AST TO BLK STL
== ==================== == === === === ==== ==== === === === ==== ==== === == === == === ===
4 Dwayne Bacon g 32 4 14 1 5 4 4 13 0 7 7 5 1 0 0 3
5 Malik Beasley g 34 3 9 1 4 3 6 10 2 2 4 2 2 0 0 0
15 Boris Bojanovsky c 13 2 2 0 0 3 4 7 3 0 3 1 0 0 1 0
22 Xavier Rathan-Mayes g 34 6 14 1 7 0 1 13 0 2 2 2 5 2 0 0
32 Montay Brandon g 9 1 3 0 0 0 0 2 1 1 2 1 0 1 0 0
1 Devon Bookert 36 5 12 4 9 5 6 19 1 1 2 5 4 0 0 4
3 Benji Bell 11 0 4 0 2 3 7 3 1 0 1 2 0 0 0 0
14 Terance Mann 9 3 5 1 2 0 3 7 2 2 4 5 0 0 0 0
23 Jarquez Smith 21 4 5 0 0 3 4 11 7 7 14 4 0 1 0 0
31 Michael Saxton 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
=========================================================================
FSU 5 200 28 68 8 29 21 35 85 17 22 39 27 12 4 1 7
Opp 200 29 54 8 18 30 37 96 10 26 36 26 18 9 5 1
| 1 | 2 | Total | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Florida State | |||
| Virginia Tech |
From the FSU Website, seminoles.com.
Bacon Leads Seminoles Over Davidson, 84-74, To Advance In NIT.
By Tim Linafelt, Seminoles.com Senior Writer
TALLAHASSEE, FL – Florida State’s two best hopes for the future helped extend the Seminoles’ present season for at least one more game.
Behind 44 combined points from the freshman combo of Dwayne Bacon and Malik Beasley, FSU cruised to an 84-74 win over Davidson in the first round of the National Invitation Tournament on Tuesday night at the Donald L. Tucker Center.
The Seminoles visit Valparaiso, an 84-73 winner over Texas Southern, in the Thursday's second round.
“I feel very fortunate that we were able to come away with a victory tonight,” FSU coach Leonard Hamilton said. “Because this team (Davidson) is a very good basketball team. I’ve got to give them a lot of credit for making us work to get this victory.”
Both teams labored through a sloppy first half that saw the Davidson shoot just 32.1 percent from the field, and FSU a not-much-better 37.5 percent.
With a 30-26 halftime score, the game appeared to be headed for a low-scoring, defense-heavy conclusion.
But Bacon and Beasley flipped that script.
Bacon scored 19 of his 24 points, and Beasley 16 of his 21, in the second half.
The two helped the Seminoles get some separation, and they effectively sealed the game when Bacon grabbed a defensive rebound, weaved through the Wildcats’ defense and dished to Beasley, who then finished the play with a thunderous dunk.
That extended FSU’s lead to 69-57 and brought the 2,496 fans in attendance to their feet.
“Those guys are just growing up. They’re getting better,” Hamilton said. “They made their shots. They made their free throws. … They had good shot selection. I thought our guys did a very good job of getting them the ball.
Added Davidson coach Bob McKillop: “They’re pretty darn big. They’re pretty darn athletic. They’re spoken about in NBA circles as being future NBA players. So they’re really good.”
Bacon and Beasley weren’t the only ones to make life difficult for the Wildcats.
The Seminoles enjoyed a big size advantage, and used it to score 48 points in the paint (compared to just 24 for Davidson) and finish with a 44-28 edge on the glass.
Every Seminole who played Tuesday night grabbed at least one rebound, with Beasley coming just one shy of a double-double.
And forward Jarquez Smith continued his recent tear, posting nine points and five rebounds in 18 minutes of work.
“We just did all we could,” Bacon said. “Coach was telling everybody to drive – everybody that wanted to drive. So we just took it upon ourselves to drive and get easy baskets.”
Meanwhile, FSU bounced back from a leaky defensive performance last week against Virginia Tech and had what Hamilton called one of their best outings of the year.
Davidson’s top scorer, Jack Gibbs, finished with 17 points, but much of that came late in the second half after the game had been decided.
He spent most of the second half stuck on just three points.
“We tried to get the ball out of his hands as much as we could, and it worked out,” Bacon said. “(Devon) Bookert and ‘X’ (Xavier Rathan-Mayes) did a great job on him, just stopping him and slowing him down.”
NO NAME GS MIN FGM FGA 3FGM 3FGA FTM FTA PTS OREB DREB REB PF AST TO BLK STL
== ==================== == === === === ==== ==== === === === ==== ==== === == === == === ===
4 Dwayne Bacon g 28 7 14 0 1 9 10 23 1 4 5 2 2 0 0 0
5 Malik Beasley g 31 7 14 3 3 4 4 21 3 6 9 1 2 3 2 2
15 Boris Bojanovsky c 14 3 5 0 0 1 2 7 1 3 4 0 0 0 0 1
22 Xavier Rathan-Mayes g 31 4 10 0 4 1 2 9 0 3 3 0 5 4 0 0
32 Montay Brandon g 23 1 3 0 0 0 0 2 1 2 3 1 1 0 0 0
1 Devon Bookert 27 1 5 0 3 5 5 7 2 5 7 0 5 4 0 2
3 Benji Bell 9 0 2 0 2 0 0 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 0 0
14 Terance Mann 19 3 6 0 0 0 0 6 2 5 7 3 0 0 0 0
23 Jarquez Smith 18 4 5 0 0 1 1 9 0 5 5 1 0 0 0 0
=========================================================================
FSU 5 200 30 64 3 13 21 24 84 11 33 44 8 16 11 2 5
Opp 200 26 62 13 33 9 11 74 5 23 28 20 15 12 2 4
| 1 | 2 | Total | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Davidson College | |||
| Florida State |
From the FSU Website, seminoles.com.
Seminoles Fall to Crusaders In NIT Second Round
VALPARAISO, IN - Facing each other for the first time since an NCAA Tournament matchup 18 seasons ago, four-seed Florida State (20-14) fell to one-seed Valparaiso (28-6), 81-69, Thursday night at the Athletics Recreation Center in the second round of the National Invitational Tournament. It was the first time an Atlantic Coast Conference team had played at Valparaiso.
In a quick turnaround for both teams after playing in the NIT opening round Tuesday night, Florida State never led as the Crusaders opened a 7-0 lead through the first five minutes before a jumper by sophomore Xavier Rathan-Mayes got the Seminoles on the board. The Noles closed to within 7-6 on a layup by freshman Terance Mann, but that was the closest FSU would get on the night. The Seminoles trailed 39-29 at halftime, failing to contain Valpo forward Alec Peters, who went to the break with 16 points on 6-of-7 shooting and five rebounds. Rathan-Mayes led the Seminoles in the first half with 10 points.
After halftime, the Seminoles got within three points, 51-48, after a three pointer from freshman Malik Beasley during a scoring barrage midway through the half before the Crusaders slowly began to pull away. Rathan-Mayes finished with a team-high 19 points on 6-of-13 shooting from the field, while Mann and fellow freshman Dwayne Bacon led the Noles with six rebounds each.
The Crusaders had four players in double-digits, led by Peters’ 26 on 9-of-14 shooting. Peters also had a game-high nine rebounds.
Valparaiso outpaced the Noles in field goal shooting (47 percent to 41), three-point shooting (44 percent to 20), and free throw shooting (81 percent to 69). The Crusaders also led in assists, 19 to 12, and rebounds, 36 to 32.
For the Noles, the season ends in the second round of the NIT for the fifth time in Hamilton’s tenure. The Seminoles went 8-10 in the ACC on the season and reached the second round of the ACC Tournament. The season was highlighted by a win over eventual NCAA Tournament No. 1-seed Virginia and a second ranked win over Notre Dame.
The senior class of Devon Bookert, Montay Brandon, Boris Bojanovsky, and Michael Saxton finish their careers with three postseason appearances, including an NIT semifinal appearance at Madison Square Garden in 2014.
NO NAME GS MIN FGM FGA 3FGM 3FGA FTM FTA PTS OREB DREB REB PF AST TO BLK STL
== ==================== == === === === ==== ==== === === === ==== ==== === == === == === ===
4 Dwayne Bacon g 34 5 12 0 3 4 7 14 2 4 6 4 4 4 0 3
5 Malik Beasley g 29 6 11 1 4 1 1 14 1 4 5 4 1 2 1 0
15 Boris Bojanovsky c 12 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 2 2 0 0 1 0
22 Xavier Rathan-Mayes g 32 6 13 2 5 5 6 19 0 1 1 1 2 1 0 0
32 Montay Brandon g 11 1 2 0 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 3 0 2 0 1
1 Devon Bookert 32 1 9 0 3 0 0 2 0 2 2 3 1 2 0 2
3 Benji Bell 6 0 1 0 0 1 2 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0
14 Terance Mann 26 4 7 0 0 2 4 10 1 5 6 3 3 0 1 2
23 Jarquez Smith 18 1 4 0 0 5 6 7 1 1 2 4 1 1 2 0
Team 6 2 8
=========================================================================
FSU 5 200 24 59 3 15 18 26 69 11 21 32 25 12 12 5 8
Opp 200 26 55 7 16 22 27 81 10 26 36 24 19 12 2 4
| 1 | 2 | Total | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Florida State | |||
| Valparaiso |