Florida State men’s basketball (15-14, 8-8) put on a professional display in its 80-71 win on the road against Georgia Tech (11-18, 2-14) on Saturday.
The Seminoles rode their offense in the first half, scoring 41 points on 13-27 (48%) shooting from the floor before stifling the Yellow Jackets in the second, holding GT to 32% from the field in the final 20 minutes.
FSU needed every defensive stop in the second half as Georgia Tech closed the first half on a 12-1 run after the Noles led by as many as 16,
and GT trailed by only two points at one point in the second half. However, the Seminoles maintained their composure and slowly created space between Georgia Tech before leading by double digits for most of the final seven minutes in the game.
While Robert McCray V led the Seminoles in scoring, Thomas Bassong may have been the Noles’ most impactful player, going for 14 points and 12 rebounds, his first-career double-double, including seven offensive boards. Luke Loucks has continued to ride the freshman, and the 18-year-old is always ready when his number is called.
1st Half:
Florida State had a productive possession on its first three trips down the floor with Chauncey Wiggins getting to the line for two and Robert McCray V driving to the hole for back-to-back layups. RM5 capped off FSU’s strong start with a deep three off an offensive rebound to put the Noles up 9-2 courtesy of a 7-0 run. GT kept touch with a couple of threes, making it a 12-8 game at the under-16 timeout.
After a scoreless stretch for a few minutes, Kobe MaGee, checking in for Thomas Bassong, who got hit in the face and started bleeding, splashed a triple on the wing to regain a 15-8 lead. On the ensuing trip down the floor, Swinton drained a three, but was instantly answered by Georgia Tech.
FSU faced a scare when Chauncey Wiggins checked himself out of the game with an apparent injury, as the body blows started to rack up for Luke Loucks’ team. A few minutes later, MaGee also came up gimpy, the third Nole that needed medical attention in the opening minutes. Even with the injuries, the pace never slowed as Georgia Tech started the game 4-9 from deep, and the three-ball kept them in the game.
Back-to-back layups from Alex Steen and Bassong, who stayed in the game, pushed the Noles back in front by 10, 24-14, halfway through the first half. Another impressive passing play, started by McCray and ended with Cam Miles getting an easy look at the rim, gave Florida State its largest lead of the game, 26-14.
FSU continued to methodically pull away from the Yellow Jackets, and a Wiggins dunk made it a 15-point advantage. However, GT did not go away easily as they continued to pound the ball inside and extend possessions with offensive rebounds. At the end of the first half, Georgia Tech corralled six offensive rebounds and 18 points in the paint.
Leading 34-21 with five minutes in the first, McCray found Wiggins in the corner for a catch-and-shoot three, but once again, GT responded with a triple of its own, as FSU’s largest lead of the game was short-lived. Since that moment, though, the game changed, as the Yellow Jackets refused to die. Georgia Tech finished the half on a 12-1 run over the final 2:58 of the half, dwindling the Nole lead to only five points, 41-36, at the break. GT went 7-19 from three in the first half, compared to 4-15 from Florida State, and the triple became the equalizer. McCray V led Seminole scorers with 10 points in the first, but only scored one point in the final 15 minutes of the frame.
2nd Half:
The pendulum continued to swing in GT’s favor as the Noles could not buy a bucket to end the first and begin the second, as their scoring drought reached over three minutes until a nice out-of-timeout play took the lid off the hoop.
Georgia Tech made it a two-point game with a three at the 17-minute mark, but Bassong had an immediate answer with a triple from the corner to push back out to a five-point advantage with 16:37 left in the game. After the two teams traded turnovers, McCray muscled his way into the lane for two, as FSU tried to restore control over the game, but it was not for long, as another Yellow Jacket long ball made it just a four-point Florida State lead with the teams trading buckets.
Florida State clung to a four-point advantage with 12:00 minutes to go, and after the initial surge of offense to start the second, both teams had gone cold from the floor. Leading into the under-12 timeout, the Seminoles were 0-5 from the floor on their last five shots, while GT had a scoring drought of over 2:30 minutes.
The Seminoles tried to ignite their offense by turning Georgia Tech over, and back-to-back turnovers out of the break from the Yellow Jackets resulted in four quick FSU points. Loucks’ team ballooned their advantage to double digits at the 9:47 mark as Alex Steen nailed two foul shots, resulting in a 62-51 advantage. After two GT free throws and a successful challenge by Loucks, Robert McCray V nailed a stepback three from the top of the key, giving the Noles a 12-point cushion with eight minutes to go.
Along with getting back into an offensive rhythm, FSU stepped up its defensive game in the second half and held the Yellow Jackets without a field goal for over 8 minutes. Their improved rebounding helped keep GT one-and-done on their end of the floor, but active hands and closing out on shooters were the main catalysts.
Georgia Tech finally got a basket to go, a three after three-straight offensive rebounds, making it a 10-point game with 5:30 to go, and whittled the deficit to single digits with two free throws a minute later. Needing to take control of the game, Martin Somerville drove inside and rattled home an off-balance shot, while getting fouled, to bump the Nole lead back to 12.
Holding a 72-60 advantage at the under-4 timeout, Florida State continued to run GT off the line and force the Yellow Jackets to run the clock. With 2:30 to play, Steen slammed home a dunk off a beautiful dish pick-and-roll dish from Sommerville to put the exclamation point on today’s win.
Takeaways:
- As mentioned in the open, today could have slipped from Florida State, as Georgia Tech got hot from three during multiple stretches of the game. However, the Yellow Jackets never retook the lead in the second half, and getting inside the paint was critical to Florida State finding consistent offense. The Noles scored 38 points in the paint and went to the line 26 times, as they were the more physical team, after getting outmuscled against Miami earlier in the week.
- Martin Somerville’s nine points on 1-7 shooting may not seem like an incredible stat line, but he was a massive piece to the offensive puzzle with Kobe MaGee out of the game. Somerville went to the line eight times, going 7-8, while contributing three assists and facilitating the offense with Robert McCray V off the floor.
- How many times this season has FSU outrebounded their opponent by 10 or more? Well, they did so today, and the offensive boards proved to be the difference in this one. Twelve of the Noles’ 18 offensive rebounds came in the second half, leading to 11 second-chance points and 20 points in the paint. It was a group effort on the glass tonight, as Bassong, Steen and Jones combined for 27 rebounds.
Up next:
The Seminoles round out their two-game roadtrip with a matchup against Pitt at 9:00 PM on ACC Network on Wednesday.
