Advertisement
Advertisement
Published Jan 17, 2024
FSU aggressive in paint, captures fifth straight ACC win
circle avatar
Bob Ferrante  •  TheOsceola
Editor
Twitter
@bobferrante

Florida State drove the lane. The Seminoles were more physical inside.

Paint points added up. And they kept adding up to a fifth straight ACC victory.

Cameron Corhen scored 16 points (on 7 of 7 shooting) and Primo Spears added 16 points as the Seminoles held off a late Miami rally for an 84-75 win on Wednesday night at Coral Gables. It was the Seminoles' sixth straight win at Miami.

FSU scored 52 points in the lane, 61.9 percent of its production on a night when the 3-pointers weren’t falling (4 of 17).

Corhen had three steals and scored his most points since he had 18 in a loss at Florida in November. Spears matched a season-best and now has scored in double figures in all but one of his nine games.

Jamir Watkins scored 15 points on 7 of 15 shooting, including a poster dunk late in the game. Watkins also had five rebounds.

Baba Miller continued his hot streak, scoring nine points and pulling down eight rebounds.

"We won this game by committee, by everybody contributing a little bit," FSU coach Leonard Hamilton said. "That’s who we are. We don’t have a go-to guy that we consistently go to. We try to win games by getting the best out of our individuals."

And the icing on the cake for FSU? Seeing former teammate Matthew Cleveland struggle, as the junior guard had just two points on 1 of 8 shooting.

The Seminoles (11-6, 5-1 ACC) won the rebounding edge 41-35. They also had 15 offensive rebounds that led to 21 second-chance points.

Taylor Bowen added four steals in just eight minutes.

Still, it was tight late. FSU led by 16, 53-37, with 16:54 to go after a Watkins jumper. Miami gradually chipped away at the lead and used an 8-0 run to trim the deficit to just two points on three occasions, the last one being Norchad Omier’s dunk with 4:59 left and FSU clinging to a 73-71 lead.

But Miami (12-5, 3-3) missed its last four shots from the floor and was scoreless in the final 2:28.

Nijel Pack led the Hurricanes with 19 points on 8 of 17 shooting, while Omier had 15 points and 15 rebounds.

Up next

FSU plays host to Clemson on Saturday at 4 p.m. (ACC Network).

Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement