Posted by BillFromTampa

Florida State and Virginia played a hard fought game going at one another for forty five minutes. But clutch free throw shooting and key defensive stops in overtime gave the Seminoles a rare win on Tobacco Road in beating the Cavaliers 87-82.

Leonard Hamilton was obviously pleased with his team’s performance noting that his team “played tough and smart”.

The win reflected the total team effort that Hamilton likes to see. “So many guys did good things for our team” Hamilton said afterwards. ‘,’Those “guys” Hamilton referred to included just about everyone who played. It’s easy to start with Al Thornton and his 22 points and 9 rebounds and Alexander Johnson’s 16 points and also his 9 boards.

But with three point shooting being an issue, Isaiah Swann stepped up with 17 points that included 4 of 5 from behind the arc.

Jason Rich added 12.

The head coach also singled out Ralph Mims who only had two free throws, but they were absolutely crucial at that moment. The coach even acknowledged Jerel Allen who also had just two points but gave the team some good defense in his seven minutes on the floor.

As Seminole fans know, winning ACC games on the road has been an issue for the team. Under Hamilton, the Tribe has had just one road victory in three plus seasons. The coach later said, “The guys grew up a little bit. It was particularly pleasing for me to see the kids pointing at each other during the game and saying to each other that we we’re not going to lose this game.”

Hamilton gave credit to UVa for executing its offense well. Sean Singletary’s 27 points and JR Reynolds’ 17 was nearly enough to give the Cavs the win.

Marmadi Diane added 11 for Virginia.

Florida State however worked its game plan just about perfectly and made more plays down the stretch.

With depth being a problem for Virginia, playing good defense without fouling while drawing their players into fouls was essential. FSU accomplished that as Virginia saw three of its frontcourt players foul out notably defensive threat Tunji Soroye and top rebounder Jason Cain.

It was a tight game right from the start. The two teams traded the lead early on in what turned out to be a track meet of sorts. Florida State had its transition game working in the first half scoring quickly on many occasions after Virginia made baskets or turnovers. And if the transition game wasn’t there, FSU had a lot of movement around the basket in its half court sets leading to numerous layups.

The ‘Noles largest lead was eight points, 44-36, when Thornton nailed one of FSU’s eight three pointers with 2:35 left in the half.

But an intentional foul called on Todd Galloway against Singletary seemed to take some momentum away from the ‘Noles. Singletary scored five points in the last 1:25 and FSU lead by just two, 47-45, at intermission.

Both teams shot the ball well to that point. UVa was 50% from the field but FSU was blistering the net at a 60% pace.

A Virginia fan was overheard by radio play by play man Gene Deckerhoff as saying there was no way Florida State could continue shooting at that rate. He was wrong.

Despite UVa employing different defenses to try and slow down the Seminole shooters, FSU continued its torrid pace and ended the game with the same 60% from the floor.

Virginia managed to take the lead at the 10:08 mark on two Singletary free throws. Again the two teams traded the lead back and forth over the next several minutes. Adrian Joseph’s three ball gave Virginia a 77-72 lead with just a couple minutes left in the game.

But just a minute before that, Soroye had picked up his fifth foul. His absence took away a shot blocking presence around the lane. Swann took advantage by knocking down a jump shot and was fouled on the play. Rich stole the ball feeding Galloway who beat TJ Bannister down the floor for the layup tying the game at 77.

FSU held firm on Virginia’s next possession forcing Singletary into an air ball and the shot clock violation. With about forty seconds left Florida State ran some time off the clock eventually getting the ball to Thornton. What appeared to be a good chance for the ‘Noles to take the lead, Thornton’s basket was waived off as he was called for charging with just 19 seconds left in the game. Again the Seminole defense held firm and Diane’s long three from the corner was no good sending the game into overtime.

Johnson gave FSU the first lead of the extra period that they never relinquished.

The ‘Noles also managed to get two more Cavaliers to foul out of the game shortly after Johnson’s basket.

One of the better free throw shooting teams in the conference, the Cavs uncharacteristically missed three shots from the stripe, one by Reynolds and two by Bannister.

Meanwhile FSU was 8 of 10 in charity shots in the overtime stanza. None were bigger than the two by Mims. Following a basket by Singletary to make it 83-82, Hamilton drew up the inbound play to get the ball into the hands of his best free throw shooter. Fouled immediately after Swann passed it into play, Mims, currently the league’s best free throw shooter, delivered with just 10.7 seconds left.

Virginia’s final attempt was no good and Rich was fouled getting the rebound. His two from the line sealed the win for the Seminoles.

The Seminole defense was key holding the Cavs to just under 40% in the second half. On the flip side, the Cavs had been holding teams to under 30% from behind the arc. What has been a weakness for the Seminoles of late was a major contributing factor as FSU shot 53% on 8 of 15 three pointers.

Key also was rebounding. Despite having just 8 offensive boards to Virginia’s 13, the Seminoles finished the game with a one rebound margin, 29-28, over the Cavs.

The Seminoles (11-2, 2-1) will celebrate the win about as long as it takes them to fly directly to Boston where they will take on the Eagles who have yet to win a conference game. Tip off is Saturday at 2:00 PM. There is no TV for the game.