Florida State (16-14, 9-8) dominated the Pittsburgh Panthers (11-19, 4-13) for the first 23 minutes of this one, opening up a 24-point lead and seemingly able to run any offense they wanted. But the shots stopped falling and the Seminoles withstood an angry demonstration by Pitt at Panthers Senior Night. In the end, FSU found a way to make enough plays on both ends to take a 75-74 victory. The win secures FSU a record of at least .500 in ACC play for Coach Loucks’ first season, quite an accomplishment after starting conference play 0-5.
First half
The game began with the Hurricanes making enough free throws down the stretch to hold off a late SMU charge. Oh wait, that’s the other game we were forced to watch because TV executives still can’t fathom college basketball games lasting more than two hours. When the broadcast finally switched to FSU, the Seminoles led 13-8 in the under-16 division. The boxscore tells me that 6 of those 13 points came to the rim via a layup by Thomas Bassong and two dunks by AJ Swinton.
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Chauncey Wiggins kept the momentum going with five straight points, and then Bassong and Swinton continued to impress. Swinton hit a three-pointer before Bassong blocked a three-pointer at the other end, then ran down the court, was rewarded with a great pass from Martin Somerville and then finished with authority. That dunk gave FSU a 12-point lead, 20-8.
However, Pitt did not give up his resignation. The Panthers cut the deficit in half with a 6-0 run that included a big dunk from former ‘Nole Cam Corhen. Lajae Jones said anything you can do, I can do better, finishing the race with a dirty two-handed slam after driving straight down Main Street, pushing the lead back to 22-14. Pitt cut the lead to five thanks to offensive rebounds and in that same sequence, FSU’s Swinton went down with a serious leg injury. It looked like it could be a turning point for Pittsburgh. However, Robert McCray V and the Seminoles disagreed.
A quick 5-0 run put the lead back to double digits. The two teams played a bit of back-and-forth for a few minutes before McCray V set up Bassong on a nifty layup and then hit a deep 3-pointer on the next possession to extend the lead to 12, 34-22. One possession later, Somerville hit a 3-pointer and suddenly the Seminoles led by 15. The lead would grow to 18 after McCray V finished a layup with 28 seconds left, but Pitt went on a 5-0 run aided by a technical foul on Somerville for cheering on his teammate. The basketball gods made up for the weak T, when Cam Miles hit a 40-footer as the first-half buzzer sounded.
During the half, FSU scored 1.39 points per possession, going 8-14 from deep and leading for over 19 minutes. Pitt came as close as 16 thanks to 9 made free throws and a ton of offensive rebounds.
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Second half
Outside the locker room, Florida State did exactly what you’d want to see: they came out on the right foot. The Seminoles used a stifling defense and a high-execution offense to shock Pitt with an 8-0 explosion, opening up a 54-30 lead less than two minutes into halftime. At that point in the game, FSU was shooting 10-16 from deep, while the Panthers were just 1-12. But Loucks’ team couldn’t finish off Pitt when they had them on the ropes. The Panthers cut the U16 margin to 19, with Barry Dunning scoring 7 of Pitt’s 9 quick points. Sensing the momentum, Pittsburgh returned to its recipe for success in the first half by using offensive rebounds and turnovers to generate easy looks inside. When Dunning hit a three-pointer in the corner with 11 minutes left, FSU’s lead had been cut to just nine, 60-51.
Jones finally ended Pitt’s 16-2 run with an old-fashioned three-pointer. But Dunning, a career 31% three-point shooter, hit his third 3-pointer of the half to get back within single digits. The margin remained between 9 and 11 points for about four minutes of play, although FSU missed several opportunities to extend it to 13 or 14 with missed shots at the rim. Dunning then continued the Senior Night of his dreams, hitting his fourth three-pointer of the half and fifth of the game, cutting the margin to 6, 67-61. Cam Corhen followed with a pair of free throws and FSU looked completely spent. All the falling shots, all the precise passes, all the defensive disruptions, disappeared at the Oakland Zoo.
At the under-4 media timeout, FSU had gone 5:37 without making a field goal, making dunks, open corner 3-pointers and everything else. On the other end, a familiar scene was unfolding with the FSU defense seemingly unable to keep a single player from leaving, as Dunning scored 18 points on 7-9 shooting in 17 second-half minutes.
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The score of 68-63 remained fixed on the scoreboard from the 5:07 mark to 50.6 seconds, when a once free-flowing game came to a halt. Finally, Jones hit a three-pointer in the corner to put FSU up by a much more comfortable margin of 8 points. But the consolation didn’t last long as Pitt ran onto the court and counterattacked with a three-pointer, making the score 71-66 with 44 seconds left. For a moment it looked like Pitt had FSU in trouble with a corner trap, but Somerville was strong with the ball, finding Miles along the baseline, who lofted it toward Wiggins, who was waiting under the basket for a dunk.
Unfortunately, the following throw-ins didn’t go so well. After a pair of Pitt free throws cut the lead to five, Cam Miles fumbled the ball back to the Panthers and they took the lead with a three-point goal. FSU’s lead was cut to 73-71 with 9.7 seconds left. Enter McCray V. The senior made two free throws to give FSU a 75-71 lead with 5.9 seconds left. Pitt would make a desperation 3-pointer with 1 second left, but that only mattered to the players.
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Court boss: Robert McCray V. Sure, he was only 4-16 on field goals. But the senior made big plays when it mattered, with the two free throws at the end being the biggest. His 6 rebounds and 6 assists were also huge.
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For some reason, FSU has been much better on the road this season than at home. Much of that success on the road is due to success on set. Coming into this game, the ‘Noles were shooting 36.3% from deep in ACC road games compared to 27.8% in league home games (worst in the conference). To make matters worse, opponents are shooting 38.6% from three against FSU in Tallahassee. This win gives FSU a 6-3 mark in road league play this year, which is the most ACC road wins for a Seminoles team since going 6-3 in the 2019-2020 season.
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From a metrics standpoint, this was a missed opportunity. Get a 20-30 point win on the road when you’re basically a pick’em and that would propel you up the ranks of KenPom, Torvik, and NET. But honestly, metrics don’t matter much anymore for this year’s team. What matters is laying the foundation for the type of culture that will be established and expected in the Luke Loucks era, and wins like this are fantastic for doing just that. Almost nothing went right for the Seminoles during the final 15 minutes of the game, but the players fought, clawed and clawed their way to victory. Learning to win is a skill like dribbling and shooting, and pulling off games like this is part of that development for youngsters like Somerville, Bassong and Miles.
Next
The Seminoles return home for Senior Day against the SMU Mustangs. One of two ACC opponents the ‘Noles face twice this season, FSU lost a tough battle in Dallas 83-80 on Jan. 24. Florida State compiled a phenomenal Senior Day record under Coach Ham, going 19-4 in his career and winning 10 of his last 11. Luke Loucks, who won his Senior Day 80-72 over Clemson, will look to follow in his mentor’s footsteps.
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The game begins at 2:00 pm on Saturday, March 7.