FSU men's basketball stumbles at Georgia Tech, falls 75-61

ACC standings don't mean a whole lot in late January, and the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets hammered that point home Wednesday night in Atlanta.

Coming in with the worst record in the Atlantic Coast Conference, the Jackets took control in the first half and dominated the league-leading Florida State Seminoles for nearly the entire game.

Led by four players in double-figures scoring, the Jackets cruised to a 75-61 victory.

Florida State falls to 13-6 and 6-3 in the ACC. Georgia Tech improves to 9-10 and 2-6.

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Box Score: Georgia Tech 75, FSU 61

Florida State came into the game riding a six-game win streak, but the Seminoles struggled for most of the night against Tech's alternating zone defenses.

The 'Noles committed 12 turnovers in the first half and 17 for the game, they trailed by 11 points at halftime, and that deficit expanded to 14 at one point in the second period.

"We were extremely tentative, unlike the way we have been at times this year," FSU coach Leonard Hamilton said. "We went to several different types of schemes, but it seemed as though we -- for whatever reason -- we were very, very passive tonight. And we were not nearly as aggressive as I had hoped that we would be."

FSU started to figure things out midway through the second half and had a chance to cut it a one-possession game after freshman John Butler hit a 3-pointer to make it 57-53 with about eight minutes left. But freshman Matthew Cleveland missed his shot the next time down the court, and the Seminoles could never get over the hump.

Their last gasp came when senior RayQuan Evans made two free throws to cut the lead to 63-58, but Tech responded quickly with a 3-pointer to push the advantage back to eight.

"You've got to give them credit. They outplayed us tonight," Hamilton said. "This is a loss that won't look very good on our resume. So that means now we've got to figure out a way to make up for this. Hopefully get another run of games being successful."

The Yellow Jackets, who won both matchups against FSU last season, never let FSU get into much of an offensive rhythm. Polite (11 points) and center Naheem McLeod (10 points) were the only players to reach double-figures.

The Seminoles' top two scorers -- Caleb Mills and Malik Osborne -- combined for just eight points; neither played more than 19 minutes. Osborne has been dealing with a sprained ankle, and Mills was limited Wednesday by a throat infection, according to head coach Leonard Hamilton.

Forward Jordan Usher led the Jackets with 19 points.

Florida State returns home Saturday at 3 p.m. to face visiting Virginia Tech.

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