2/18/2023 basketball Edit

Early hole too big for FSU to overcome in first home loss to BC in 16 years

Curt Weiler • TheOsceola

Senior Writer

In a year where Florida State men's basketball's home-court dominance has come to a screeching halt, another impressive winning streak came to an end Saturday.

The Seminoles' nine-game home winning streak over Boston College, which spanned just over 16 years, came to an end as the Eagles (13-15, 7-10 in ACC) came into the Tucker Civic Center and came away with a 75-69 win over FSU (8-20, 6-11) in a battle of teams which began the day tied for 10th in the ACC standings.

It's BC's first win at FSU since Feb. 11, 2007 and the Seminoles' fifth straight home loss overall, dropping them to 5-10 at home this season with one home game left on the schedule.

The game looked destined for a far worse outcome when the Seminoles buried themselves in an early 30-11 hole with six minutes left in the first half.

They ended the half on an 8-0 run to cut that to 11 at the break and reduced the deficit to as little as four points five different times in the second half. FSU was never able to reduce the margin to less than that, though, as the Eagles kept counterpunching at the perfect moments.

"Boston College took advantage of our youthful inexperience, at least for the first 14 minutes of the game. I thought that we were not playing anywhere close to what we have expected," FSU head coach Leonard Hamilton said. "But for 26 minutes, we actually played some decent basketball...We dug such a hole for ourselves, it was hard to overcome it."

The main reason the Seminoles were able to remain competitive after falling behind so drastically was a productive takeover game of sorts by junior guard Caleb Mills.

With Matthew Cleveland missing his second straight game due to back spasms, Mills put up 27 points, trying his career high. He attacked the basket and got to the free throw line with regularity, racking up 17 of his points from the charity stripe. That nearly doubles his previous career high of nine and sets a new Tucker Civic Center record and FSU record in ACC play for most made free throws by a player in a game.

"We asked Caleb to attack the basket, but that's what our plan was for the entire team. Caleb has that confidence that allows him to be more consistent..." Hamilton said. "Caleb kind of kept us in the game there. He was consistent the whole game with attacking the basket."

As a team, the Seminoles were exceptional from the free throw line, hitting a season-high 30 of their 34 attempts. This marginally covered up a poor shooting game from the floor, with FSU shooting just 28.6% in the loss.

Mills' individual breakthrough covered for a game where many other regular contributors for the Seminoles were severely limited in their offensive ability.

Darin Green Jr. scored 13 points, but needed 17 shots to get there and was 3 of 11 from three-point range. After breaking through with a career-high 12 points Wednesday at Clemson, Baba Miller had just two points and two rebounds, fouling out in 14 minutes of action.

FSU freshman point guard Chandler Jackson did pick up some of this slack, posting a career-high 10 points and matching a career high with four rebounds.

On the other end, BC forward Quentin Post proved too much for the Seminoles to handle. The seven-foot Mississippi State transfer put up 21 points, including a 5 of 5 showing from three-point range, and six rebounds to lead the way for the Eagles.

"The big guy, we didn't have an answer for him," Hamilton said of Post.

BC sloppiness can't be fully taken advantage of

Beyond Mills' performance, another reason why the Seminoles were able to climb back into the game was their defensive intensity.

While the Eagles were 8 of 13 from three in the first half, they were also far too sloppy with the basketball. BC turned it over 10 times in the first half and 11 in the second half. While FSU played a role in this, creating 15 steals with active hands, it wasn't able to fully take advantage with 15 points off those turnovers.

While Green had an off shooting night, he did have a career-high five steals while Jalen Warley had four and Cameron Corhen had three, leading to FSU forcing a season-high 21 turnovers.

FSU also hurt this cause, though, with 12 turnovers of its own.

Up Next

FSU gets a week between games now to recover for the home stretch. The Seminoles are back in action next Saturday at 4 p.m. on the road at rival Miami.