Florida State led most of the way, and used a late 13-1 run to pull away in a 69-59 upset of top seed Virginia Friday night in the ACC Tournament semifinals.
The Seminoles (27-6) led 35-31 at halftime, but UVA (29-2) did lead briefly, twice, on a driving layup by De’Andre Hunter, and then after a David Nichols short jumper, again on a jumper by Kihei Clark, that made it 45-44 ‘Hoos with 13:59 left.
It was still 49-48 Florida State after a Ty Jerome three with 12:01 left, but the ‘Noles would outscore Virginia 13-1 over the next 5:34, as the Cavaliers missed four shots and committed three turnovers over that span.
A layup by RaiQuan Gray with 6:43 to go gave Florida State its biggest lead, at 62-49.
The closest UVA would get thereafter was six, at 65-59, on a free throw by Jay Huff with 54 seconds left.
Huff missed the second free throw in that sequence, and Ty Jerome had a chance, after a Florida State turnover, to cut into that margin, but badly misfired on a three with 29 seconds left.
Mfiondu Kabengele hit a pair of free throws a second later to extend the lead to three possessions.
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A Jay Huff miss from three with 18 seconds left led to a breakaway dunk by Terrance Mann that was probably unnecessary, but, anyway.
The difference was Florida State’s efficiency on offense. The ‘Noles had shot just 34.1 percent in a 65-52 loss back in the teams’ ACC opener on Jan. 5, but Friday night, shot 56.5 percent from the floor, and 58.3 percent in the second half.
Virginia, on its side, not so efficient: just 41.5 percent, 22-of-53, from the floor, and a woeful 5-of-24 (20.8 percent) from three, as the ‘Hoos were bothered by the Seminoles’ size.
It was such that Kyle Guy had only two shots from the field in the second half, after putting up 11 points on 3-of-6 shooting in the first half.
De’Andre Hunter had 13 points on 6-of-12 shooting to lead UVA.
Jerome added 10, but shot just 4-of-13 from the floor, capping a 5-of-24 weekend in Charlotte.
Story by Chris Graham
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