After a frightening scene that saw Florida star forward Keyontae Johnson collapse while coming onto the court from a timeout and be taken to a local hospital, the Florida State men's basketball team put together an impressive team performance Saturday and rolled to a 83-71 victory over the Gators.
Johnson, who was the preseason SEC Player of the Year, opened the game with five early points as the Gators jumped out to an early 11-3 lead. But with just over 16 minutes remaining in the first half, Johnson fell to the court and appeared to struggle to regain consciousness.
He was wheeled off the court on a stretcher, and ESPN's television crew later reported that Johnson was in critical but stable condition.
"I did not see what happened," FSU head coach Leonard Hamilton said. "It had a really dramatic effect on my team. ... Matter of fact, several of my players were crying. ... A couple of them were emotional to the point that I wasn't real sure how effective they would be throughout the game."
Hamilton said he left it up to Florida head coach Mike White if the Gators wanted to continue playing. The visitors elected to stay on the court, and so they resumed the game after a delay of several minutes.
"What I told our guys we just need to pray for him and hope that everything works out all right," Hamilton said. "Immediately we had several players get on their knees and were praying that our opponent would recover."
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Mike White didn't have a postgame availability afterwards, so there was no official update on Johnson's status immediately after the game.
As for the game itself, after trailing by as many as 11 points in the first half, the Seminoles went on a 17-0 run to take control of the game. They led 45-35 at halftime.
Freshman point guard Scottie Barnes led FSU with 13-points in the first half -- including a highlight-reel dunk over a Florida defender -- and junior guard Anthony Polite added 12.
Barnes would finish the game with a career-high 17 points, including another posterizing dunk in the second half that included a post-dunk dance. Polite would finish with a career-high 14, and senior guard M.J. Walker finished with 17 points.
Walker hit just two field goals in the game - his lone basket in the second half was a Barnes-esque hammer dunk over a UF defender - but was a perfect 12 of 12 from the free throw line.
"M.J. has been through the battles," Hamilton said. "I think he expects a lot of himself. He's embracing the leadership role that has been thrown on him."
As for Barnes, Hamilton acknowledged once again how immense his talent is, but quickly turned his comments into how much room he and the team have to improve.
He said he's still trying to figure out his rotations as the Seminoles prepare to open conference play.
""We have a lot of interesting developments going on with our team," Hamilton said. "I'm just trying my best to learn as much as we can playing against very stiff competition.
"It's a delicate balance in how you get guys experience and how you win the game.... We're in a position where we're trying to do both at the same time."
The Seminoles played all 13 scholarship players on Saturday. And 11 of them scored.
The victory marked FSU's seventh straight in the series and the Seminoles' second impressive non-conference win in four days after knocking off Indiana at home on Wednesday.
FSU's next game will be its ACC opener on Tuesday against visiting Georgia Tech.
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