This hasn't been quite the senior season RayQuan Evans envisioned when he decided to come back for his fifth season of college basketball.
The Seminoles have struggled integrating a roster with only a few veterans and a slew of first-year players. They suffered three double-digit losses by early January and experienced their first home loss to an ACC opponent in nearly three years.
But most significantly to him personally, Evans also experienced a tragic family loss in late November when his brother Tye Oldelk Lafranier died following a battle with a rare form of leukemia.
What Evans accomplished in the final seconds of Florida State's home game Tuesday night against rival Miami won't erase that pain, but it could have a major impact on the rest of his final college season.
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After Miami's Charlie Moore drained a contested 3-pointer with seven seconds left, Evans took the inbounds pass, drove the length of the floor and rose up to shoot a short jumper with less than a second remaining.
Moore attempted to block the shot, but instead made contact with Evans' elbow.
That foul would send Evans to the free-throw line, where he was a 71.5 percent shooter coming into the game.
One make would tie the score and send the game to overtime. Two would give the Seminoles the win.
"At first, we were talking to him," fellow senior Malik Osborne said. "But me knowing Ray for about two or three years now, I told everybody, 'He's fine. He's an experienced veteran. He's been here before. He's made free throws. Let him do his thing.' ...
"I looked at him, he said, 'Game time.' I said, 'Enough said. I don't need to tell you anything more.'"
Game time, indeed.
Evans' first free throw touched nothing but net. His second swished through after banging off the back of the rim, serving as almost an exclamation point on the 65-64 victory -- Florida State's eight straight against the rival Hurricanes.
"That moment was huge," Evans said. "We've been dealing with a lot of adversity, both team-wise and in my personal life. But just to be able to be in that moment and to be there with my brothers ... it was just a great team win. And I'm glad we got that team win because it's something we can build on."
The Seminoles definitely needed it. After getting blown out last week at Wake Forest, this appeared to be an extremely daunting stretch of the schedule.
They faced two home games against the only teams still undefeated in ACC play -- Louisville and Miami -- followed by a road trip to Syracuse, which was the team that broke the Seminoles' lengthy home win streak just last month.
After handing the Cardinals their first conference loss on Saturday, Evans and FSU did the same to the Hurricanes (13-4, 5-1 ACC) on Tuesday. And suddenly, the Seminoles are back in the middle of the ACC standings with a 3-2 record in league play and a 9-5 mark overall.
But Evans wasn't thinking about the big picture before he stepped to the free-throw line late Tuesday.
Instead, he called upon some of the lessons he has learned from meditation.
"Take a couple deep breaths and be in the moment." Evans said. "So I tried to incorporate that. You know, I've shot thousands of free throws. So I just [stood] there, did my routine, trusted my work, and I hit the two big free throws. And that came from the confidence of my team as well."
Evans was not the most likely hero.
After opening the season with 14 points against Penn in FSU's first game of 2021-22, the senior hadn't scored in double-figures since. He is averaging 6.6 points on the season, and he hadn't even attempted a free throw in the Seminoles' previous two games.
He had only shot two free throws since mid-December. And the two huge ones he made with 0.8 seconds remaining on Tuesday were his first of the night.
But if Evans had any anxiety or nervousness about the moment, it clearly didn't show on his face -- or the way he stroked his shots.
"He stepped right up with poise and an extreme amount of confidence," Hamilton said. "I was very, very pleased with his body language. It was like he said, 'I'm glad I'm on this line. And I want to win this game for my brothers.'
"Those were huge free throws."
Evans finished the night with 11 points -- his highest-scoring output since the opener -- four rebounds, two assists and two steals. His +/- was the highest on the team at +13.
But as special as the performance was for him individually, the senior seemed most proud of the way his younger teammates responded to the challenge of trailing for nearly the entire game. He pointed out that FSU has struggled in some similar situations early this season, but he loved the way they fought back repeatedly down the stretch this time.
And he was more than happy to help seal the deal on a win that snapped Miami's nine-game win streak -- the Hurricanes hadn't lost since late November -- and could go a long way in turning around the Seminoles' season.
"This is probably a moment I'll never forget," Evans said.
Warchant intern Zach Nadel contributed to this report.
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