Virginia actually shot a respectable 45.7 percent. Tomas Woldetensae made three second-half threes, which is good.
The 18 turnovers, nine – damn, that’s ghastly – from point guard Kihei Clark, not good.
The Cavaliers made #9 Florida State play Virginia’s game.
Florida State still won, 54-50.
A run of six straight turnovers in the latter stages of the first half fueled an 11-0 FSU run that sent the Seminoles into the locker room up 31-24.
UVA (11-5, 3-3 ACC), gamely, fought back, and it was a pitched battle in the latter 20 minutes.
The problem for the ‘Hoos being: lack of firepower.
Woldetensae’s three threes, for instance: they were the only three the Cavaliers could manage all night.
A 27 percent three-point shooting team coming in, Virginia was 3-for-15 Wednesday night in Tallahassee.
Credit to Mamadi Diakite, who earned himself an angry Tony Bennett timeout late in the first half, during the ugly turnover run, when he tried to do something, not sure what, leading to an FSU runout.
Diakite put up good numbers: 16 points, 6-of-8 shooting, six rebounds.
He was the only guy in double figures in scoring. Braxton Key had nine points, on 4-of-10 shooting. Clark had eight, on 4-of-12 shooting, with five assists, but, those turnovers.
Florida State (15-2, 5-1 ACC) won’t want to frame this one and try to auction it at a fundraiser.
The ‘Noles shot 37.0 percent (20-of-54) and had 16 turnovers.
And this was after FSU came out on fire, scoring 12 points on their first five possessions – two threes, an and-one, a layup and a free throw.
Virginia dominated in the paint: shooting 13-of-21 at the rim, to FSU’s 6-of-13.
The difference was from three. Not that FSU was a recent-vintage GSW, shooting 8-of-22, but that’s 24 points on 22 shots, with Virginia getting nine on its three makes on 15 heaves from three.
You’re tired of reading this story, but shooting from the perimeter was the difference tonight.
Story by Chris Graham
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