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Published Feb 2, 2022
Florida State falls at Clemson, 75-69, drops third straight
Corey Clark
Warchant.com

Caleb Mills and RayQuan Evans returned to the lineup for Florida State on Wednesday night.

That was the good news.

The bad news was that sophomore center Naheem McLeod, who had been playing the best basketball of his career recently, was sidelined with a broken finger just two minutes in on Wednesday night.

And the Seminoles, despite a combined 27 points from Mills and Evans, fell at Clemson 75-69 to drop a third straight game in the ACC.

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Florida State is now 13-8 on the season and 6-5 in the conference.

"I thought the first half defensively, once again we didn't defend nearly as well as I thought we did in the second half," Hamilton said. "We're a little short-handed. Naheem broke his finger. So, he's probably out for six to eight weeks I'm sure. So, that kind of hurt our rotations a little bit."

Clemson led just 36-34 with less than three minutes left in the first half, but a 9-2 spurt at the end of the half gave the Tigers a nine-point lead going into halftime.

Nick Honor's jumper right before the buzzer gave Clemson a 45-36 lead at the break.

It was the second straight road game in which the Seminoles gave up at least 44 points in the first half.

The second half, Florida State's defense fared better, but it wasn't quite good enough to escape with a win on the road.

Mills hit a jumper to cut the lead to three and then hit the first of two free throws to trim the Clemson advantage to 69-67 with 2:25 left. But the Seminoles didn't hit a field goal the rest of the way, and the Tigers' P.J. Hall made four straight free throws down the stretch for the 75-69 final.

Hall finished with a team-high 15 points for the Tigers.

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Clemson wound up shooting 51.9 percent from the floor and held a 37-24 rebounding edge. But the Tigers didn't hit a shot from the field for the final five minutes on Wednesday night, which allowed the Seminoles to stay in the game down the stretch.

Florida State only turned the ball over nine times and shot 48 percent from the field, but other than Mills (16 points) and Evans (11 points) no other Seminole was in double-figures.

"The second half I thought our defense stepped up a little bit and we were able to do a much better job," Hamilton said. "But I thought Clemson got the stops they needed, and it seems as thought they got big baskets and got to the free-throw line a little more consistently."

Florida State returns to action on Saturday at noon when it hosts Wake Forest at the Tucker Center.

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