Florida State men stun Miami to earn first ACC win of season

The Florida State men’s basketball team had been close to breaking through in each of its last two games. The Seminoles lost a down-to-the-final-minutes contest at Syracuse and then a one-point heartbreaker at home on Saturday to Wake Forest.

On Tuesday night in Coral Gables, against their arch rival, the Seminoles picked up their first ACC win of the season, and Luke Loucks got the first conference victory of his coaching career with a 65-63 nail-biter over the Miami Hurricanes.

Incredibly, it was the 15th win in 16 games — and sixth straight — for the Florida State men against the squad from South Florida.

And it was far from easy. The Seminoles led for most of the night, but with 20 seconds left, the game was tied 63-63. Senior guard Robert McCray, who had a historically bad night in the loss to the Demon Deacons with 11 turnovers and a missed shot at the buzzer, held the ball until the final seconds and then drove toward the basket. He was fouled on the way to the basket.

McCray calmly made both free throws. Then Lajae Jones stole the subsequent inbounds pass, and the Seminoles were celebrating their first conference win and their first road win of the season.

McCray led Florida State with 20 points. He also had four rebounds, four assists, a season-high three blocked shots and just three turnovers.

Chauncey Wiggins was the only other FSU player in double-figures on Tuesday night, finishing with 10 points in a game that was played at a much slower pace than the Seminoles are accustomed to.

Florida State was just 6-of-17 from 3-point range — well short of the typical number of attempts in a game — but shot a respectable 45 percent from the floor overall. Meanwhile, Miami shot just 42 percent from the floor and was only 8-of-28 from beyond the arc.

The Hurricanes out-rebounded the Seminoles 35-30, but Florida State had a 20-5 advantage in bench points as the Hurricanes’ reserves went just 2-of-12 from the floor.

And while Jones didn’t score well on Tuesday night for FSU — he was just 1-of-6 from the floor for 3 points — he did contribute a team-high nine rebounds to go along with that game-clinching steal at the end. Freshman Thomas Bassong added eight points and six rebounds in 31 minutes as he has seemed to become a mainstay in the starting lineup.

Miami, which has had a rough 24 hours as an athletic department, including the football team’s loss in the national title game, falls to 15-4 overall and 4-2 in the ACC.

Florida State, which was an 11.5-point underdog on Tuesday night, is now 8-11 and 1-5. The Seminoles will try to make it two ACC road wins in a row on Saturday at SMU. They then return home next Wednesday for a game against Cal.

Box Score: FSU 65, Miami 63

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