Seminoles Stay Hot: FSU men win fourth straight ACC game, 67-58, at Notre Dame
Make that four in a row for the Florida State men’s basketball team.
Behind a balanced scoring effort and a stifling defensive performance in the second half, the Seminoles beat Notre Dame, 67-58, on Saturday afternoon in South Bend, Ind. It marks the fourth straight win for Leonard Hamilton’s team, which is now 10-6 overall and 4-1 in the ACC.
The 10 wins are more than the Seminoles had all of last season.
This was also the first true road win of the year for Florida State, which plays at Miami on Wednesday.
FSU led by four points at halftime and then opened the second half with an 8-0 run to get the lead into double-digits. And while the Seminoles led for the entirety of the second half, and for over 33 minutes overall, it was never a cruise-control victory.
Notre Dame, mainly thanks to the play of star freshman Marcus Burton, continued to stay within striking distance. He scored six straight points late in the second half to help cut into a Florida State lead that got as high as 14. Then, when teammate Braeden Shrewsberry drilled back-to-back 3-pointers, Notre Dame cut the lead to just three points with 1:25 to go.
And the few thousand in attendance, who braved the snow to come watch the tilt at the Joyce Center, got as loud as they had been all game long.
That’s when Georgetown transfer Primo Spears made the biggest shot of the game — and his biggest of the season — for the Seminoles.
Spears had just knocked down a pull-up jumper on the previous possession, and then with a minute to go and FSU only leading by three, Spears used a lightning-quick spin move to get free and then buried a short floating hook in the lane to push the lead back to five.
Florida State got a stop on the next trip down court, and Jamir Watkins made two free throws on the other end to essentially put the game away.
Spears led the Seminoles with 13 points on 5-of-12 shooting. Watkins, who sat for most of the first half with two fouls, added 12 points. Jalen Warley and Darin Green Jr. each had 10 for Florida State, which was 13 of 15 from the free-throw line.
Notre Dame, meanwhile was just 3 of 11 from the free-throw line and also committed 14 turnovers to FSU’s eight. Burton led all scorers with 20 points, and the Fighting Irish made 9 of 26 from 3-point range. FSU was just 4 of 14.
Baba Miller, coming off a career-high 14 points in the Seminoles’ last win against Wake Forest, had just five on Saturday but also added nine rebounds, three blocked shots and three assists in 30 minutes.
Box Score: FSU 67, Notre Dame 58
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