Florida State (17-14, 10-8) continued to ride a surge of momentum with a 91-78 beat down of the SMU Mustangs (19-12, 8-10). The Seminoles were masters of the Senior Day under former coach Leonard Hamilton and continued that domination in Luke Loucks’ first opportunity as a coach. FSU got 82 of their 91 points from seniors, including a career high 31 from Chauncey Wiggins. Fellow senior Robert McCray V paced the Seminoles with 12 assists to go along with his 17 points. Four FSU players finished in double-digits
as the ‘Noles never trailed, and never led by less than 11 in the second half.
First Half
The physicality was high in this one from the opening possession. Both teams attacked the rim looking for contact, got it, but nary a whistle came. With FSU leading 3-2 nearly three minutes in, senior big man Shah Muhammad brought the crowd to its feet with an authoritative finish on an ally oop that finally did bring a foul call with it. Muhammad converted the and-1 and the ‘Noles lead grew to four.
Robert McCray V made it an 8-2 lead with a crafty drive and finish in which he split a double team, scooped a layup, and put some English on it to spin it in. Down six, SMU realized they were playing for the NCAA Tournament lives and ratcheted up the defense several notches, forcing FSU into multiple turnovers and difficult shots. Down at the other end, Samet Yigitoglu dominated Florida State’s small lineup. The 7’2, 270 pound center who came to SMU from one of the top professional leagues in Turkey did whatever he wanted to in the paint (including park in the center of the lane for 6-8 seconds a possession), going 3-3 in the paint and grabbing five offensive rebounds in an 8 minute stretch. Slowly, but surely the Mustangs chipped away at the deficit before finally knotting things up at 18 at the under-8 timeout.
Momentum shifted in a hurry out of the timeout. Senior Alex Steen broke the tie with a strong finish underneath. FSU’s defense got a stop, which led to a McCray V three-ball. Chauncey Wiggins joined the fun with back-to-back threes, his third and fourth of the game, giving Florida State a kill shot and their first double-digit lead of the game. SMU stopped the bleeding with a deep three by Jaron Pierre, Jr., but FSU kept the pedal to the metal with another scoring burst, this time a 9-0 run that put the Seminoles up 38-21 with 2:10 remaining in the half. That margin grew to 20 on the strength of a Martin Somerville step-back triple and a Steen dunk, before settling at 45-27 when the horn sounded.
Wiggins had 16 at the break on just 7 shot attempts, while McCray V sported a 9 assist to just 1 turnover ratio. SMU was done in by a 28% turnover rate, as FSU racked up 9 first half steals led by Lajae Jones with 4.
Second Half
SMU came out of the locker room and went right to their Turkish pro. The big man bullied his way to the basket and the harm, though he couldn’t finish the three-point play. Wiggins responded with a corner three on McCray’s 10th assist of the game, then converted a an old fashioned three point play less than 20 seconds later.
At this point, the game turned into a three point contest. Boopie Miller made back-to-back threes to cut FSU’s lead to 16. The score then vacillated between 19 and 16 for two minutes as the two teams alternated threes on five consecutive possessions. The last one by Cam Miles ended up with a technical on the freshman for taunting, giving Miller two freebies. Jones pushed the lead back to 20 with a hoop and harm three-point play, but Miller was now Steph Curry hot. The senior rained in two more threes to cut FSU’s lead to 14, 63-49. Kobe MaGee hit his second corner three of the half to momentarily extend it back to 17, but Miller canned his 5th and 6th three of the half to bring the margin down to 11, 66-55.
Through the first 8 minutes of the second stanza, the two teams combined for 13 made threes, plus two more hoop and harm threes. Miller had 20 of SMU’s 28 points, as the Mustangs were scoring at 1.47 points per possession.
The extended media timeout cooled off Miller just a smidge, as the flame thrower missed just short on his 8th three point attempt of the half. McCray V, on the other hand, used the breather to heat up. The senior transfer from Jacksonville University ripped the nets on two straight triples to put the Seminoles back up 17 with 10 minutes remaining. Wiggins and Jones combined to push the margin out to 22 with 6:07 left and Florida State fans were feeling great. While the game would last for what felt like another hour thanks to the frequency of fouls and reviews, the outcome itself was no longer in doubt.
Box Score and Takeaway
- Chief of the Court – Hard to believe this doesn’t go to Robert McCray V considering the senior point guard dropped 12 dimes (to just 1 turnover) while sinking 4 threes, but Chauncey Wiggins played his best game of the season and probably career. The senior transfer for Clemson set a career high with 31 points with a hyper-efficient 10-14 performance, including 6-8 from deep. But more than just offense, Wiggins brought tenacity on the glass at both ends of the court, and used his positional size and length to disrupt passing lanes. His shooting in the first half helped FSU open up their big lead and his offensive rebounds and strong play around the rim in the second half helped FSU maintain a double-digit margin when it appeared to be slipping away.
- This was far and away FSU’s best offensive performance at home since the near upset of Duke. Coming into this game, the ‘Noles were shooting just 27.8% from deep in ACC home games. That lack of accuracy probably cost them wins against UVA and Wake Forest, and certainly would have today when Boopie Miller went nuclear. But in this one the ‘Noles trio of Wiggins, McCray V, and Kobe MaGee combined to shoot 13-20 from deep, helping FSU make their most threes on the season. This is the offense Luke Loucks envisions.
- It took this group of players a couple months to find their footing, but my goodness have they been fun to watch the last 7 weeks of the season. Kudos to them for buying into what the staff was selling, and major props to Coach Loucks for completely shifting his plan of attack midway through the season. The future looks bright.
- Boopie Miller is a ridiculously good offensive player.
Up Next
Florida State heads to Charlotte, North Carolina for the ACC Tournament. With the win, the assured themselves a first round bye, meaning their first game will on Wednesday, March 11. With Miami losing at home on Senior Day (thanks for nothing, Canes) FSU gets locked into the 8/9 game, with the winner facing Duke on Thursday, March 12th.
