Saturday marked a big day in Tallahassee with all roads leading to the Donald Tucker Center for yet another ACC clash. The Men’s Florida State Basketball team took on the University of Miami’s Hurricanes in a SOLD OUT rivalry game. When these two teams met three weeks ago at Miami’s home court in Coral Gables, Florida State was not able to pull an on-the-road victory. But, with Tucker stadium packed full of Garnet and Gold fans, Florida State had no other choice than to claim their third back-to-back win. Good job Noles! Let’s jump right into those stats.
Aside from the fact that “U(suck)” is one of our bitter rivals; before this game, they were ranked #6 in the ACC right above FSU, with a 15-4 (4-3) record. This was a rank swap game. A loss to Miami would have dropped us 2 slots in the ranks—YIKES! Luckily, we weathered the storm and are now ranked #5 beneath Clemson, right above NC State, UNC, and Miami; with a 16-5 (5-4) record.
This high-risk game brought with it high-intensity energy from the jump. Our starters, Phil Cofer (00), CJ Walker (02), Braian Angola (11), Terrance Mann (14) and Christ Koumadje (21), who scored the first points of the game, kicked off the first half shooting at 66.7%. Miami had their top shooting average at 50% in the second half, with their player Lonnie Walker IV scoring 23 points, the most in the game overall. The top scorer for FSU was Mr. Double O (Phil Cofer), with 21 points, followed by Angola with 18. With an electrifying first half, FSU led by 5 at 44-39. The second half was filled with fouls—Miami carrying out 13 in the entire game. Assisted by the endless war chants and “F*** Miami” calls, the Noles were able to hold a tie of 83-83. With only seconds left in the game, Terrance Mann was able to get a shot in but missed. Lonnie Walker of Miami took a shot for the win, missing, with CJ Walker catching the rebound of a loose ball then in Florida State’s possession. Unfortunately, Braian Angola’s game-winning attempt was blocked by Lonnie Walker. You know what that means—Overtime.
The crowd was ready for the win, jingling keys to signal Miami’s long trip back with a “Tucker Takedown.” Starting OT on fire, FSU scored 6 points before Miami could make a basket. With time winding down it was pretty clear the Noles would win. The last Timeout at 21.4 had FSU up 7. With the clock quickly winding down, the end of the game was met with “Garnet growls” and endless “OHH OH OHH’s.” Phil Cofer picked up a block to take the game; Noles won by 9 in OT with 103-94. The Noles will travel to Wake Forest to compete on Wednesday. Don’t miss the next home game against #1 ranked Virginia, Wednesday, Feb. 7!
All photos courtesy of Twitter.