A flood of fouls, ice-cold shooting doom No. 11 Seminoles at Pitt
It was going to be a tough game no matter what.
The Florida State Seminoles were coming off a heartbreaking loss to Duke, and had just a one-day turnaround before heading north to play a much-improved Pittsburgh squad on Monday night.
But with the way they shot for 40 minutes, and the way they continued to foul (or at least get called for fouls) they would've had a hard time beating anyone.
Florida State was just 2 of 22 from 3-point range -- P.J. Savoy hit one in the final seconds to end a streak of 19 straight misses from beyond the arc -- and Pitt made a staggering 38 of 46 free throws to pull off the 75-62 upset on Monday night in Pittsburgh.
The Seminoles actually took a 47-46 lead in the second half on two straight Trent Forrest free throws, but after that it was all Panthers.
Mainly because they kept going to the free-throw line.
Freshman Trey McGowans scored 30 points on just five made field goals. He was 18 of 19 from the line.
Pittsburgh only shot 34.8 percent from the floor, but with the way FSU shot (34.5 percent) and the way FSU kept fouling, it didn't much matter.
Mfiondu Kabengele picked up his third foul on a clean block early in the second half. He picked up his fifth foul on a blocking call in which it looked like he stood flat-footed for more than a second before the Pitt player slammed into him. But he was called for the foul on what ended up being an and-1 for the Panthers.
It was that kind of night for the Seminoles, who despite their horrendous shooting still had a chance late in the game. They cut the lead to five, then got another stop and had Phil Cofer take a wide-open 3 in the corner that could have cut the lead to two.
It rimmed out.
Which summed up the game for Florida State.
Forrest led the way with 19 points and nine rebounds but was just 4 of 13 from the floor as he clearly is still being bothered by his turf toe injury. He was the only player in double-figures for the Seminoles, who did get 11 rebounds and five blocks from Christ Koumadje.
Florida State (13-4, 1-3 in the ACC) now has five days off before heading back on the road to take on Boston College on Sunday afternoon.
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