Box Score: FSU 75, Xavier 70
NASHVILLE - The same team. The same round. A much different result.
Trailing by as many as 12 in the second half, the Florida State Seminoles came back to knock off No. 1 seed Xavier 75-70 at Bridgestone Arena in Nashville.
P.J. Savoy knocked down the go-ahead 3-pointer with 1:08 left. FSU got consecutive stops and Savoy and C.J. Walker hit four straight free throws to send the Seminoles to the Sweet 16 in Los Angeles.
Florida State will take on No. 4 seed Gonzaga on Thursday night.
Unlike last year's beatdown in Orlando, the Florida State Seminoles hung with Xavier for most of the game on Sunday night. They trailed by two at half and with eight minutes left were still very much in the game.
And that's when Xavier begin to feel the pressure. And Florida State took control. Mfiondu Kabengele had two huge putbacks, and drew a charge to foul out Xavier senior J.P. Macura late in the second half.
Florida State was playing in front of a very pro Xavier crowd on Sunday night, but it didn't matter. The Seminoles withstood the runs, made enough shots and celebrated the fifth Sweet 16 appearance in program history.
And it came against the same team that blistered them by 25 a season ago in the second round of the NCAA Tournament.
From the start of the game on Sunday night, however, it had a different feel than the one from 12 months ago.
Most of the first half couldn't have gone much better for Florida State.
Even with Xavier making 10 of its first 14 shots, the Seminoles hung around and eventually took a three-point lead on an Angola 3-pointer with less than a minute remaining.
Plus, the Musketeers’ three best players - J.P. Macura, Trevon Bluiett and Kerem Kanter - were all on the bench with two fouls as the half wound down.
It appeared the Seminoles would go into the locker room with a lead. The only question was how much? Instead, things went real sour real quick.
A questionable charge call on Trent Forrest at halfcourt took away a breakaway dunk for Angola. Then, with 10 seconds left, Macura came back into the game to drill a 3 from the top of the key to tie the game at 32. Angola's 3 on the other end was off and Christ Koumadje was called for an offensive foul on Bluiett - the replay didn't show much contact at all - and the Xavier senior made both free throws on the other end to give Xavier a 34-32 lead at the break.
Angola had 11 in the first half and Phil Cofer added eight.
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