Hot-shooting Florida State makes the winning plays, sends Virginia packing from ACC Tournament

The Virginia Cavaliers, with 13-and-a-half minutes left, took a 45-44 lead on a Kihei Clark jumper. It looked like the Cavaliers, after falling behind by as much as 10, had stemmed the tide.

Rather, that lead turned out to be the last.

Buried by a barrage of Florida State offensive rebounds, second-chance points and tough jump shots that found the bottom of the net, Virginia’s last 13-and-a-half minutes felt like 13-and-a-half years. The Seminoles pulled away for a 69-59 win in the ACC semifinal.

This game, like any, can be broken down by numbers. But it can also be broken down by words — words Virginia’s players and coaches readily provided.

From Tony Bennett: “Florida State played well, they defended well, they were sound, and tonight they were the tougher team, or more physical.”

From Ty Jerome: “They were just the tougher team tonight. More physical tonight. All of it.”

From Kyle Guy: “I think coach and Ty really hit the nail on the head: They were the tougher team.”

Toughness can’t always be quantified, but it certainly was on Friday.

The Seminoles were tough on the glass.

Florida State owned the boards to the tune of a 35-20 advantage. The Seminoles grabbed nine offensive rebounds, which turned into nine second-chance points.

The Seminoles made tough shots.

Florida State shot a scorching 56.5 percent from the field. Only Duke’s 57.8 percent, in the second meeting between the Blue Devils and Cavaliers, was higher from an opponent this year. It was the Seminoles’ best shooting performance of the year, and it came against the third-best field goal percentage defense in the nation.

The Seminoles made life tough with their outstanding defense.

Virginia shot just 42 percent from the field and just 21 percent from three (on 5-of-24 shooting). The Cavaliers — among the top three teams in the nation coming into the game from downtown — canned seven threes on 16 attempts in the teams’ regular-season meeting.

“Sometimes the ball doesn’t go in,” said Jerome, who shot just 4 of 13 from the field.

And while the Cavaliers certainly could have played better in several areas — there were too many missed opportunities and simply too many mistakes — the Seminoles were absolutely terrific. The nation’s No. 12 team, coming off an Elite Eight appearance last year, runs 10 players deep, and all 10 can play at a high level. Four Seminoles scored in double figures Friday, and though Florida State used its outstanding size to its advantage throughout the night, it was the smallest rotation player, 6-foot-1 guard David Nichols, who led the way with 14 points.

Meanwhile, the towering tandem of Christ Koumadje and Mfiondu Kabengele combined for 19 points and 15 rebounds, six of them offensive.

“When we needed to get a stop, we couldn’t come up with a key defensive rebound, so those things kind of hurt us — to give them second chance opportunities,” Bennett said.

One could argue, though, that it was the defensive end of things where the game was won for Leonard Hamilton’s bunch. After making six threes in the first meeting, Kyle Guy only shot five deep balls, smothered by a long list of lengthy Seminoles.

“I think they’re a very athletic team, very long,” Guy said. “It did disrupt us a little bit, and we’ll watch the tape, and I think it was very evident what we needed to fix, and we’ll be ready come next week.”

Of players who shot more than three times, only De’Andre Hunter made at least half of his attempts (6 of 12, 13 points). Hunter, one of the few Cavaliers with the length and athleticism to match the Seminoles, took just five shots in the second half, though, and only four not counting a meaningless missed three in the final few seconds. After making a jumper to give Virginia its first lead of the second half, 43-42, he went nearly nine minutes without a field goal attempt.

The final buzzer almost seemed like a relief for the Cavaliers, who never truly got comfortable against Florida State’s aggressive man-to-man defense that often extended all 94 feet.

“I think with us, I think the main thing is our defense; I think it kind of does that for us,” Phil Cofer said. “And I think just ball pressure, being able to just get down and dirty on defense — and the main thing with us is our junkyard defense, and we kind of take it in each and every practice, being able to just have high hands, long arms, a lot of times try to get steals and deflections and those are the main things that win games for us.”

The Cavaliers scored just 59 points on 59 offensive possessions, per KenPom. For a team that’s built on efficiency rather than pure scoring, it was the least efficient game in nearly a month.

“They have an offensive system that obviously is extremely difficult to defend, because they have so many options, and they have great shooters that any time you make a mistake, they make you pay,” Hamilton said. “And that goes all the way back to Tony’s father with that system. I’m very familiar with it, and it’s very difficult, but I thought our guys were locked in and trying not to give them — at least the easiest opportunities, at least make them work for the shots that they had, and our [for] guys, it was difficult.”

The best news by far and away for Virginia is that this loss, which snaps a nine-game winning streak that spanned more than a month, is not a season-ending one. The Cavaliers still have their ultimate goal ahead of them, and they know it will require a significantly better effort than Friday night’s.

“We’ll get some extra rest for these guys, we’ll grow as we said, learn from the tape, and you take the hand that’s dealt, and you make the most of it,” Bennett said. “I wanted these guys so bad to get a chance at a title fight … but that didn’t happen. It wasn’t that their effort was poor or anything, but now we’ll use it to the best of our advantage.”

Both Bennett and Jerome are no strangers to March disappointment. Both also know, though, that this disappointment can turn into a positive. A teaching and learning point. Perhaps even a wake-up call.

“It’s going to be painful not to play tomorrow, but I remember we cut down the nets in the ACC Tournament last year, and we didn’t like the way our season ended,” Jerome said. “So this isn’t the end all, be all by any means. So [it’s] just about trying to figure out how much better we can get from now to Thursday or Friday.”

Story by Zach Pereles