The No. 15 Florida State men's basketball team came into Saturday night with the nation's second-longest streak of home victories against non-conference opponents at 41. The Seminoles had won 27 straight home games against all competition.
Those streaks have been reset to zero, thanks to a stunning 86-74 upset victory by visiting Central Florida. It was UCF's first win over FSU in 12 tries all-time.
The Golden Knights (2-1) torched the Seminoles' normally stingy defense in the second half, connecting on 57.1 percent of their shots from the field and 60.0 percent from 3-point range.
"We did not do a good job of containing the dribble, and our rotation was not very good," FSU head coach Leonard Hamilton said. "It seemed like any time we gave them an open look, they knocked down an open jump shot."
The Knights hit 6 of 10 from 3-point range in the second half, including the first four after halftime to turn a five-point deficit into a lead they wouldn't relinquish.
Every time the Seminoles (4-1) would make a run, cutting the lead down to three or four points, it seemed the Knights had an answer. They hit seven consecutive field goals during a game-turning stretch midway through the second half.
UCF hit some tough shots during the second-half surge, but the Knights also hurt the Seminoles by spreading the floor and attacking the basket for layups.
“When you have people getting into the paint, they're not discouraged because you don't have the rim protection," Hamilton said. "And on the kickouts, I don't think they missed any uncontested shots."
But it was more than simply making shots. Even when the Knights missed in the second half — which didn't happen much -- they were pulling down offensive rebounds. Of the 12 misses UCF had in the final 20 minutes, it rebounded exactly half.
For the game, the Knights had 10 offensive boards and out-rebounded FSU 32-25 overall.
"We didn't do a good job rebounding," said FSU senior guard M.J. Walker, who led the Seminoles with 22 points. "They got a lot of second chances in the second half, where we should have boxed out and secured the ball."
UCF, which hadn't played in two weeks and had played just two games all season, was led by three primary scorers -- Brandon Mahan (32 points), Isaiah Adams (22) and Darin Green Jr. (20) -- who combined to score 74 of the Knights' 86 points.
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Mahan scored 26 of his points in the second half and finished the night 10-of-10 from the free-throw line. Central Florida was 23-of-26 from the line overall, while once again FSU struggled, making just 16-of-26.
Raiquan Gray and Anthony Polite both scored 14 for the Seminoles, who hadn't lost a home game in almost two years, since Jan. 22, 2019.
"They had a better energy tonight," Walker said. "They approached the game wanting to beat us really bad. You saw that on the floor. ... We didn't show that tonight."
It was the fourth game in 10 days for Hamilton's team, while the Knights had those two weeks off. But the FSU head coach wasn't about to use that as an excuse.
He said his team has been winning games despite some obvious deficiencies that need to be corrected. And on Saturday night, UCF "exploited" them to the tune of a double-digit win.
Hamilton said the ‘Noles haven't been a good rebounding team all season and have yet to develop any rim protection with shot-blockers.
"We don't have the luxury to use (being tired) as an excuse," Hamilton said. "When you're trying to do something special, you don't want to lose because a team wants it more than you do.
"And we had a team that was on point, and executing, with a lot of energy and taught us a very valuable lesson. Hopefully we'll learn from this."
Said Walker: "We just had one of those nights where we didn't get the job done. ... when we get in situations like this moving forward, we'll know what to do."
Florida State's next game is Monday at home against Gardner-Webb (7 p.m., Fox SportsSouth).
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