|
 Syracuse (27-4 overall, 14-4 in ACC) outrebounded Florida State
43-24, including 17 on the offensive end, and the Orange will now
enjoy a double-bye in the upcoming ACC Tournament, which begins next
week in Greensboro, N.C.
Four players finished in double figures for Syracuse, including a
game-high 22 points to go along with seven rebounds and four steals
from forward C.J. Fair.
The victory helped Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim breathe a sigh of
relief after a rough three weeks that included head-scratching
losses to Georgia Tech and Boston College at home.
"I give these guys a lot of credit today," Boeheim said of his team,
which came into Sunday's game mired in one of its worst skids in
years, having lost four of its last five after opening the 2013-14
season 25-0.
"This (win) was a big, big turnaround for us. This will help us
moving forward."
Florida State, meanwhile, may now be moving toward the NIT
Tournament, rather than the NCAA Tournament.
In most experts' mock NCAA tourney fields, the Seminoles (18-12,
9-9) came into Sunday's game as one the teams on the proverbial
bubble. Despite winning four of five their last five games — including three in a row before the loss to Syracuse — the
Seminoles will likely need a strong performance at the ACC
Tournament to insert itself back into the NCAA conversation.
Syracuse will be the ACC Tournament's No. 2 seed, while Florida
State will either fall to No. 8 or 9, depending on Sunday night's
outcome between Boston College and N.C. State. If the Wolfpack win,
FSU will open the tournament against Maryland, but if N.C. State
loses, it will turn around and face FSU in the tourney opener.
Seminoles coach Leonard Hamilton lamented the fact his team didn't
do more to get a much-needed win — or improve their standing in the
eyes of the NCAA Tournament committee.
"We were not consistently taking what the defense gave us and we
were extremely tentative in our approach," Hamilton said. "Honestly,
I thought we would do a much better job against this zone. We acted
like we weren't comfortable making decisions against the zone. They
were definitely the better team today."
One of the biggest questions coming into the game was if Florida
State could break through Syracuse's tough 2-3 zone, but early on
the Seminoles weren't able to finish at the bucket and the Orange
grabbed a 7-2 lead in the opening four and a half minutes after FSU
turned the ball over twice, missed two layups and failed to hit
their opening three free throws.
But the Seminoles, who were led Sunday by senior forward Okaro
White's 20 points and 11 boards, stayed with Syracuse and even took
a 16-15 lead midway through the first half. In a span of less than
four minutes, White dropped in eight straight points and led all
scorers in the first half with 14 points and six rebounds.
Guard Tyler Ennis put Syracuse back in front by three points, 23-20,
with 5:44 left before intermission, sparking an 11-0 run to push the
Orange's lead to 31-20. Ennis led all Orange scorers in the first
half with 12 points as Syracuse went to the break ahead 33-27.
[to top of second column] |
Syracuse stretched the lead to eight points early in the second
half, but FSU crept back in with a 7-1 run with 12 minutes remaining
in the game. White's lay-in cut the deficit to 47-46 and sent the
crowd into a frenzy.
"We were in it," said FSU guard Aaron Thomas, who chipped in 14
points in the loss.
But Orange guard Trevor Cooney, who was just 1-for-6 in the first
half, heated up after Syracuse called a timeout and drilled
back-to-back 3-pointers to stretch the lead back to seven, 57-51.
The Orange never looked back.
Syracuse center Rakeem Christmas jammed home back-to-back buckets
with under three minutes to play to push Syracuse's lead to 16
points, the 10,435 fans in Tallahassee — representing the largest
crowd of the season at the Donald L. Tucker Center — headed for the
exits.
The Seminoles also got 16 points from senior guard Ian Miller, but
it wasn't nearly enough.
"We just ran out of energy It was an emotional game," said White,
who was one of three FSU seniors playing in their final home game
Sunday. "We cut it to one, and we knew Cooney was a great shooter
and was going to come out aggressive. And he hit both those and
really got them going."
Added Hamilton about Cooney's two triples: "That was the turning
point."
Cooney finished with just eight points on 3-of-13 from the field,
but the Orange didn't need a lights-out performance from their top
shooter Sunday. They also got big games from Ennis, who finished
with 16 points and four assists, and forward Jerami Grant, who
returned from an injury to drop in 16 points and pull down a
team-high eight rebounds. Christmas added 12 points, six rebounds
and two blocks.
"Huge to be able to come down here (and get this win)," Boeheim
said. "You want to win, but you also want to play well. (And today),
we played well. We have struggled to score (lately), but today we
scored, we were great on the boards and our defense was good.
Momentum can be a funny thing."
NOTES: Syracuse leads the all-time series 4-1 following the win, but
Sunday's game marked the first meeting between the two schools in 17
years. They last faced off in the NIT Tournament in 1997, when the
Seminoles won 82-67 for their first victory in the series ... FSU
head coach Leonard Hamilton's cell phone went off during his
post-game press conference, prompting him to turn to a FSU staffer
and said with a laugh, "If that's a recruit, tell him I'll call him
back." ... Before the game, Florida State honored its three seniors
on Senior Day" — Fs Robert Gilchrist (London, England) and Okaro
White (Clearwater, Fla.) and G Ian Miller (Charlotte, N.C.). ... No.
7 Syracuse represented the highest-ranked opponent to face FSU this
year. FSU is 2-4 in those games, including four straight losses to
ranked opponents following Sunday's defeat ... There was roughly 15
NBA scouts on hand Sunday to watch Sunday's regular-season finale.
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