Seminoles Rally to Beat Orange

Saturday, February 15

Tallahassee, FL

12 PM

Syracuse University

14-11,7-7ACC

Florida State

21-4,11-3ACC

Syracuse

Florida St.

2/15/2020 2:26:00 PM | Men's Basketball

Box Score Highlights Jim Boeheim Press Conference Photo Gallery Coach Boeheim Quotes Coach Hamilton Quotes

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – No. 8/8 Florida State (21-4, 11-2 ACC) secured its 20th straight win at the Donald L. Tucker Center as Syracuse (14-11, 7-7 ACC) fell to the Seminoles (21-4, 11-2 ACC), 80-77. The Orange trailed by one with 10 seconds remaining, but a pair of free throws with eight seconds on the clock secured the win for the home team.

Redshirt junior Elijah Hughes scored a game-high 25 points after returning from a lower-body injury that forced an early-exit on Tuesday. Freshman Joseph Girard III tallied 22 points to pair with team highs in rebounds (7) and assists (5).

FIERY FINISH
With the Orange up three with 2:36 to play, Florida State's M.J. Walker hit from beyond the arc with contact to tie the game at 69. He completed the four-point play to put FSU in front, 70-69.

On the ensuing possession, freshman Quincy Guerrier was fouled driving to the basket. He converted both of his free throws to put the Orange back ahead by one, 71-70.

Trent Forrest and Hughes then traded layups before points in the paint from Patrick Williams put FSU up by one. A pair of free throws from Raiquan Gray extended the Seminole advantage to 76-73 with 1:14 to go in the contest.

Bringing the ball up the court with under a minute to play Girard III found Hughes, who muscled his way to the basket to put the game within one. After another layup in close from Williams, Hughes again found success at the rim to put the Orange down one, 78-77, with 10 seconds to play.

A Girard III foul sent Forrest to the line, where he hit both of his free throws to extend Florida State's lead to 80-77. With Syracuse needing a triple to tie the game, a Hughes three-ball bounced out to Forrest to end the game.

SEMINOLE SCORING SHOW
The opening frame saw the Orange jump out to a quick 4-0 lead with buckets from Girard III and Hughes before the Seminoles found their rhythm. They scored 10 unanswered points, spearheaded by six from Walker, before a strong layup in the paint from Bourama Sidibe ended the Syracuse scoring drought at the 15:53 mark of the first. Before exiting briefly in the first half, Walker scored a team-leading nine points in eight minutes, going 3-of-5 from beyond the arc.

TALLAHASSEE TUG-OF-WAR
Over the next four minutes, the teams traded blows, with 10 points being scored by each squad. The Orange were bolstered during this period by Girard III, who buried a 3-pointer and made three free-throws to tally six points in the course of 22 seconds.

The Orange kept clawing their way back midway through the half, with another triple from Girard III and a driving layup from Hughes, putting the Orange back within one.

After a Wyatt Wilkes' trifecta gave Florida State a four-point advantage, Marek Dolezaj hustled after a missed 3-pointer from Girard III, securing the loose ball and putting his defender in the spin cycle for the score to put Syracuse back within one.

Two strong defensive stands opened the door for the 'Cuse to take the lead. Hughes kicked out to a scorching Girard III, who drained his third shot from beyond the arc to put the Orange ahead, 26-25. The triple gave the freshman guard 14 points in the first 15 minutes of play.

Gallery: (2/15/2020) Syracuse at Florida State

STATE SECURES THE LEAD
Tied at 29 with 5:02 to play, the teams went scoreless for more than two minutes before a breakaway slam from Balsa Koprivica commenced a 12-4 run for the Seminoles to close out the first half with a 41-33 advantage. Koprivica and Williams accounted for nine of Florida State's 12 points to close out the half.

The Seminoles converted on 50 percent of their 3-point attempts during the opening period compared to 21.4 percent from the Orange. The teams were more evenly matched from the field, with FSU converting at a 40.5 percent clip compared to a 37.5 percent rate from the 'Cuse.

SCORCHING SYRACUSE SCORERS
Hughes tallied the first points of the second half with his first 3-pointer of the game. The ACC's second-leading scorer buried another trifecta with just under four minutes gone in the second half to put the Orange within one, 45-44.

After being held to four points in the first half, Sidibe found his offensive groove, draining two free throws and finishing strong at the rim after getting fouled. Another made free throw gave the junior center five points in the first three minutes of the second half. Sidibe's nine points were his best since scoring 12 at Notre Dame on January 22.

FLORIDIAN FORCE
Ten unanswered points from Florida State over the next four minutes pushed the FSU lead out to 11 before a fast-break three from a wide-open Girard III ended the Seminole scoring run. Five of the 10 points during the run came from Forrest, who nailed a jumper and a triple to close out the stretch.

MORE THAN JUST AN AVERAGE JOE
With Florida State owning a six-point advantage, 59-53, with 8:23 to play, back-to back lay-ups from Guerrier and Dolezaj cut the Seminole lead to two. Then with 6:05 remaining, Girard III willed his way to the basket to tie the game at 59. After securing the rebound on a Walker miss from downtown, Girard III found nothing-but-net on a 3-pointer to force a timeout call from Leonard Hamilton. The trifecta was Girard III's fifth of the night, tying his career high.

'CUSE KEEPS COMING
A three-point play from Hughes extended the Orange lead to 65-61, their largest-lead of the night to that point before Walker drilled a triple to put the game within one. A broken play led to a lob to Guerrier for a slam and the foul. After the freshman converted from the charity stripe, the Orange owned a 68-64 advantage with 3:49 to go.

NOTABLE NUMBERS

Buddy Boeheim recorded two blocks in the first five minutes of play to secure the first multi-block game of his career.
After exiting with a lower-body injury in the first three minutes of Tuesday's meeting with NC State, Hughes recorded 25 points for his 24th double-figure scoring effort of the season.
Girard III posted his third 20-point effort of the season and tied his career high with five threes.
The Orange outscored the Seminoles in the paint by a commanding 40-24 margin.

UP NEXT
The Orange wrap up their two-game road swing with a Wednesday night matchup in Kentucky against #5 Louisville at 7 p.m. The game will be televised nationally on ESPN and the Watch ESPN app.

Syracuse's next Dome game is on Saturday, February 22, to take on Georgia Tech.

For complete coverage of Syracuse men's basketball, follow us on Twitter (@Cuse_MBB), Instagram (cuse_mbb) and like us on Facebook (SyracuseOrange).