Cleveland-less FSU unable to keep up in blowout loss at Clemson

Florida State men's basketball's injury luck keeps getting worse this season, if you can believe that.

The Seminoles were without sophomore guard Matthew Cleveland for Wednesday's road game at Clemson due to back spasms he was unable to play through.

With FSU missing its leading scorer and rebounder (14.0 points and 7.9 rebounds per game), it shouldn't come as a surprise that the Seminoles struggled to keep up with the Tigers.

There would be no repeat of FSU's one-point home loss to the Tigers in Tallahassee this time. Clemson (19-7, 11-4 in ACC) built an early lead and coasted to a comfortable 94-54 win over the Seminoles (8-19, 6-10) at Littlejohn Coliseum to snap its three-game losing streak.

The loss marks the largest margin of defeat FSU has ever had against Clemson, surpassing the 33-point margin FSU lost to Clemson by in February of 1999. However, it's not the largest margin of victory in the history of the rivalry. FSU beat Clemson by 48 points in February of 2017.

With the loss, the Seminoles have now lost three straight games and six of their last seven since their two-game winning streak at Notre Dame and Pittsburgh in mid-January.

This was also FSU's 19th loss of the season, tying the 2004-05 season for the most losses in a season in Leonard Hamilton's 21-year tenure. With four regular season games left and then at least one ACC Tournament game, the Seminoles are two wins shy of tying the program record for most losses in a season (21 in 2000-01 season).

Another slow start

Once again, the Seminoles did themselves no favors by digging themselves into an early hole. After FSU led 3-2 in the opening minute, the Tigers scored the next 14 points, opening up a 16-3 lead.

From there, things only continued to snowball against the Seminoles. The deficit was as large as 24 points in the first half and as large as 41 points in the second.

FSU's defense struggled mightily against the Tigers this time, allowing Clemson to shoot 60.3% from the floor and make 12 three-pointers. Clemson's 94 points is the most they have scored this season in a game that didn't go to overtime.

Clemson standouts P.J. Hall and Chase Hunter scored a combined 38 points (20 from Hall and 18 from Hunter) on a combined 15 of 19 shooting.

FSU wasn't bad in terms of shooting percentage, hitting 42.9% of its shots. However, the Seminoles turned it over 16 times and snagged just 20 rebounds.

Baba Miller, true freshmen lead the way

With Cleveland missing from action, there was a vacated spot in the starting lineup available Wednesday night. Freshman forward Baba Miller was called upon to make his first career start and rose to the challenge the day after Hamilton expressed confidence in a big game on the horizon for Miller.

Miller made Hamilton look prophetic, breaking out with the most productive game of his career in his first career start at Clemson. After scoring no points over the last three games, the freshman played a career-high 28 minutes and scored a career-high 12 points with a team-high six rebounds, two assists, a block and a steal. Much of his production came from the perimeter, with Miller making 3 of 4 three-pointers, more than the two he made in his first nine games combined.

While Miller led the way, he was far from the only freshman to produce against the Tigers. In all, five FSU freshmen combined to score 28 of FSU's 54 points. Cameron Corhen added eight points, Chandler Jackson and Tom House each scored three and De'Ante Green added two points.

Up Next

FSU returns home this weekend for the most winnable game left on its schedule on paper. The Seminoles take on Boston College Saturday at noon on RSN.