Less than 48 hours after knocking off No. 6 Duke in overtime, the Florida State Seminoles were back in the Tucker Center early Thursday afternoon.
Only this time the Seminoles weren't playing a perennial power in a nationally televised game in front of a sold-out crowd.
No, this time they were playing 4-15 North Florida at lunchtime, in front of maybe a thousand fans, in a game televised by ACC Network Extra.
The Seminoles were able to grind out an 86-73 victory on Thursday afternoon over the hot-shooting Ospreys, and not surprisingly there wasn't a court-storming when the buzzer went off.
Florida State has won five straight games and is now 12-5 on the season and plays again on Saturday afternoon at Miami.
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Freshman Matthew Cleveland had a career-high 21 points and 10 rebounds, Caleb Mills added 21 as well and Tanor Ngom, in his most extensive action of the season, finished with 13 points over the physically overmatched Ospreys.
But despite the talent and size advantage, the game wasn't exactly a laugher for the Seminoles. They led by 10 at the half and by just five in the second half before going on a game-changing 13-0 run, highlighted by two Cleveland dunks.
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Even still, North Florida was able to hang around and actually the cut lead to eight with four minutes to go. But Anthony Polite hit a couple of buckets inside and the Seminoles finally got some stops down the stretch to pull away for the 13-point victory.
North Florida was 14 of 24 from 3-point range. Jarius Hicklen was 6 of 12 himself and finished with a game-high 27 points in 38 minutes.
When you take into account that FSU fouled two 3-point shooters and they made five of those six free throws, North Florida outscored FSU 47-9 from 3-point range.
But, of course, the Seminoles made up for it by dominating in the paint.
Florida State had 24 second-chance points and 46 points in the paint. The Seminoles out-rebounded UNF 38-21 and shot 56 percent from the floor.
FSU played without senior forward Malik Osborne, who is nursing a sprained ankle, but Hamilton said he could have played today if needed.
The Seminoles will return to action Saturday at Miami (2 p.m., ESPN).
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