Florida State survives cold spell, holds off North Carolina
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Braian Angola scored 20 points and C.J. Walker added 18 as 24th-ranked Florida State held off No. 12 North Carolina for an 81-80 victory on Wednesday night.
The Seminoles (12-2, 1-1 Atlantic Coast Conference) led most of the game but almost squandered it as they didn’t make a field goal in the last 2:57 and missed their last four free throws.
They were up 81-77 on Angola’s free throw before Joel Berry II made a three-pointer off a turnover to bring the Tar Heels within 81-80 with 30 seconds remaining. After the Seminoles’ Phil Cofer missed two free throws, North Carolina (12-3, 1-1) had a chance to win. Berry drove the lane and missed a jumper which was rebounded by Terance Mann. Mann missed his free throws with 1.7 seconds remaining but North Carolina’s last-second desperation three was no good, allowing Florida State to snap a seven-game losing streak to the Tar Heels. scored a season-high 28 points for Oklahoma, which won its 10th straight.
Isaac Haas scored 14 points and Dakota Mathias finished with 13 to help host Purdue (14-2, 3-0 Big Ten) pull away from Rutgers (10-6, 0-3). Purdue made it look easy against the nation’s fourth-best scoring defense. It shot 49.1 percent from the field and went 10 of 23 on three-pointers. 14 of his 18 points in the second half, and Kentucky (12-2, 2-0 Southeastern Conference) edged host LSU (9-4, 0-1). Duop Reath had 24 points and 11 rebounds for LSU, which missed two three-point attempts that could have tied it in the final seconds.
Markus Howard made 11 three-pointers and tied a Big East record with 52 points as Marquette (11-4, 2-1) defeated Providence (10-6, 1-2) in overtime. Howard tied the conference record held by Providence’s Marshon Brooks. (10-2, 5-0 North Coast Athletic Conference) pulled away from Denison (7-5, 3-2). Ohio Wesleyan outscored Denison 52-32 in the final 20 minutes. Maxwell Siwik led the Big Red with 23 points. Joey Weingartner scored 22 points and Will Hannah had 19 to lead host Capital (6-6, 2-3 Ohio Athletic Conference) past Wilmington (4-7, 1-5). Caleb Cox had 14 rebounds for Capital, which had a 52-25 advantage on the boards.
Nate Burger led host Ohio Northern (9-3, 4-1 OAC) with 26 points in a rout of Otterbein (0-12, 0-5). Connor Clark had 14 points for Otterbein.