Florida State Basketball keeps it close, but falls to No. 5 Purdue, 79-69

On3 imageby:Corey Clark•11/30/22•

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Considering the competition, the Florida State men’s basketball team played its best game of the season on Wednesday night.

But alas, just like has been the case in all but one contest this season, it was still a loss.

The No. 5 Purdue Boilermakers, behind 25 points and eight rebounds from 7-foot-4 center Zach Edey, were able to turn an early second-half deficit into an eventual 79-69 win over the Seminoles at the Tucker Center as part of the ACC/Big 10 Challenge.

Purdue is now 7-0 on the season. Florida State is 1-8 and plays again on Saturday at No. 3 Virginia to open ACC play.

Despite the loss, it was clearly a more spirited and competitive effort from Leonard Hamilton’s team than in any of the games in Orlando last week. Florida State went 0-3 with double-digit losses to Siena, Stanford and Nebraska in that ESPN-sponsored tournament.

On Wednesday, the Seminoles were still very much in the game at the five-minute mark, but a game-deciding 6-0 run by the Boilermakers turned a three-point lead into a nine-point advantage and the home team could never recover.

Darin Green Jr. led the Seminoles with 23 points, and Matthew Cleveland finished with a season-high 20. Caleb Mills was the only other FSU player in double-figures; he scored 10.

The first half, just from a competitive standpoint, was one of the best the Seminoles have played so far this season.

Despite a couple of scoring droughts of close to four minutes, the defense was good enough to keep Purdue from running away with the game. The Boilermakers shot just 39.3 percent in the first half and were also forced into eight turnovers.

Florida State wasn’t exactly thriving on the offensive end either, but that’s been an issue all year for the Seminoles. Still, they trailed just 34-32 at the half — thanks, in large part, to the shooting of Green.

The UCF transfer scored exactly half of the Seminoles’ points in the first 20 minutes, finishing with 16 points at the break on 5-of-7 shooting from the floor. He was 3-of-4 from 3-point range and 3-of-3 from the free-throw line (all on technical fouls on Purdue).

Cleveland added nine points for the Seminoles. The rest of the Florida State team in the first half combined to score seven points on 2-of-19 shooting from the floor.

Edey led the way for the Boilermakers in the first half, scoring 15 points on 6-of-8 from the floor. Purdue outrebounded the Seminoles 25-15 in the first 20 minutes as well.

FSU wound up being out-rebounded 46-31 for the game.

***Talk about this story with other die-hard FSU Basketball fans on our Seminole Hoops Message Board.**

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