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Injury-depleted Seminoles fall to Troy, drop third straight game to start season

On3 imageby: Corey Clark11/15/22Corey_Clark

The Florida State Seminoles only had seven scholarship players available on Monday night against Troy. And only six saw substantial minutes.

None played all that well, it turned out, and Troy used a 12-2 run midway through the second half and then a 10-2 run in the closing minutes to put the game away and hand the Seminoles a 79-72 loss at the Civic Center.

Florida State is now 0-3 for the first time since the 2000-2001 season, when Steve Robinson was still the coach. And that team started off with losses to Florida, Ohio State and DePaul.

This FSU version has started with home losses to Stetson and Troy with a road loss at UCF sandwiched in between.

The Seminoles led just once in the second half Monday, at 50-48, and then Troy immediately went on a 12-2 run to take back control of the game. Still, the Seminoles’ defense got enough stops and the offense hit just enough shots to be in the game in the final minutes.

But trailing 64-61 with four minutes left, Cam’Ron Fletcher grabbed a defensive rebound and then promptly threw his outlet pass out of bounds. Then, after the Seminoles got another stop, Jalen Warley turned it right back over.

The Seminoles got another stop on the next possession, and a long rebound created a golden 3-on-1 scoring opportunity at the other end. But Caleb Mills’ wild one-handed floater on the baseline missed, the Trojans got the rebound and then found a wide-open Christyon Eugene in the corner for a dagger 3-pointer that propelled the 10-2 game-clinching run.

Eugene finished with 22 points off the bench (19 in the second half). He came in averaging 8 points per game.

Aamer Muhammad led Troy with 23.

Meanwhile, Darin Green Jr. led the Seminoles with 24 points (on 7-of-9 shooting from 3-point range). Fletcher added 15 points and 10 rebounds, and Mills had 14 points. But it wasn’t enough, not nearly enough, to give the Seminoles their first win of the season.

Florida State committed 19 turnovers as a team (7 by Warley) and got outscored in bench points, 31-9.

It didn’t help matters that the Seminoles once again found themselves trailing at halftime.

They shot just 37 percent from the floor and committed 11 turnovers (four by Warley) in the first half. They didn’t handle Troy’s ball-pressure well at all, and leading scorers Mills and Matthew Cleveland managed just four points between them. Cleveland was 1 of 2 from the floor and Mills was 0 of 3.

It was the third straight half the Seminoles were held under 30 points.

Meanwhile, as has been the case in both home games this season, the Seminoles had an opposing guard go off on them in the first half. This time it was Troy’s Muhammad, who came into the game averaging 8 points for the Trojans. He had 13 at halftime, including a 3-pointer at the buzzer to give the visitors a 32-25 advantage at the break.

The Trojans finished with a 13-5 advantage in second-chance points.

Florida State plays again Friday night at home against rival Florida.

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

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