The Florida State men’s basketball team has dominated the ACC for this entire season. With wins against nationally ranked #1 Duke, top 20 Baylor, and Boston College, we have nothing to fear when it comes to making the ACC Championship. But every win is an asset to our record and we do have one thing stalling our championship: One of our star players (http://www.hercampus.com/school/fsu/fsu-campus-celebrity-chris-singleton), Chris Singleton, endured a stressed fracture in his foot, making it impossible for him to play. As one of our top scorers, the injury poses a threat to our top team status.
This past Saturday, our FSU ballers played against heated rival, the Miami Hurricanes. With Singleton out due to his injury, the Noles fans weren’t their our confident selves. However, as soon as the game started, that all changed.
The game began with a large FSU lead of 16-2. The UM team was clearly nervous and embarrassingly unorganized compared to the calm, confident, FSU men. The team kept it up, moving from 22-5, and on to one of the highest leads of the game at 31-11. After a quick use of time-outs for the Miami team, the Seminoles ended the first half with a huge twenty point lead of 36-16.
When the teams came back, they were both ready to play hard, but the Canes knew they had to play harder if they wanted to catch up. FSU kept the lead, though, with a 16 point lead. As time went on, the Canes just couldn’t compete with the Noles and stayed steady behind with a score of 37 to FSU’s 56. The Miami team knew they had to do something, and after using their third and final time out, they got up to only 9 points behind Florida State with a score of 50 to 61.
Then, all of a sudden, the Canes were just about caught up. With only one minute left in the game, UM scored 9 points while FSU only scored 1, making the scoreboard read 62-59. Since UM had no time outs left, the Noles seemed to taunt them with the abundance of theirs and used one.
After a clearly purposeful foul UM made on FSU, free throws were shot and the score was 63-59. When it was Miami’s turn to have the ball and shoot for the win, they fell short and FSU got the ball back, which, of course, led to an even bigger lead. After a nice try from the Canes, FSU came out with a win of 65-59.
This win can only help FSU’s chances of going on to the ACC championship and when “March Madness” comes around, make sure you keep these strong wins in mind as you fill out your bracket. See you at the Championship!