Seminoles commandeer ACC lead
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NO. 6 FLORIDA STATE 82,
NO. 11 LOUISVILLE 67
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Florida State’s home dominance looked shaky as it trailed Louisville by 10 points in the second half.
The Seminoles quickly regrouped and mounted a surge to defend their floor and move atop the Atlantic Coast Conference.
Trent Forrest scored 14 of his 16 points after halftime, and No. 6 Florida State rallied from the double-digit deficit to beat No. 11 Louisville 82-67 on Monday night.
The Seminoles (24-4, 14-3 ACC) moved past the Cardinals into first place in the ACC. They lead Louisville and No. 7 Duke by a half-game in pursuit of their first ACC regular-season championship.
“We’re here and here to stay,” Forrest said. “We’ve been on the up-and-up basically since my freshman year. We’ve been going out each night and trying to get the respect that we deserve. We just have to keep building on it.”
Patrick Williams’ thunderous dunk put an exclamation point on a 15-0 run that put the Seminoles ahead for good. Florida State outscored Louisville 50-27 in the second half and extended its home winning streak to 22 games.
The Seminoles’ second-half run came with starters on the bench. Reserve guards Anthony Polite (eight points) and RayQuan Evans (four) were productive offensively and sparked the rally with stifling defense.
“We have been winning games all year with the quality of our depth and our ability to play good defense for long periods of time,” Florida State Coach Leonard Hamilton said.
Devin Vassell and M.J. Walker each scored 12 points for FSU, which set a school record for ACC regular-season wins. Vassell scored 10 points after halftime.
Ryan McMahon scored 14 points, and Jordan Nwora had 13 points and 8 rebounds for Louisville (23-6, 14-4), which went more than nine minutes without a field goal during one second-half stretch.
“We battled,” Louisville
Coach Chris Mack said. “I thought their pressure, although it might not have turned us over, kept us on our heels. We handled it for the first 20 minutes. Just didn’t keep up the pace in the second half.”
The Cardinals played short-handed most of the night after junior center Malik Williams injured his left foot minutes into the game.
He returned to the bench with a boot on the foot. Mack said
Williams has a twisted ankle and didn’t know when he’d return.
Florida State has won 24 games in consecutive seasons for the first time in school history. The Seminoles were 29-8 last season.
NO. 1 KANSAS 83,
OKLAHOMA STATE 58
Udoka Azubuike had 19 points and 16 rebounds, Ochai Agbaji added 15 points, and top-ranked Kansas routed Oklahoma State in Lawrence, Kan.
Devon Dotson added 11 points, and Christian Braun and David McCormack had 10 apiece for the Jayhawks (25-3, 14-1). The win over the Cowboys (14-14, 4-11) gave Coach Bill Self’s team a halfgame lead over Baylor in the race for the Big 12 title.
The Jayhawks now have won five straight against the Cowboys, and 22 of the last 24 games played against them in Allen Fieldhouse. They also have won 23 in a row overall, building a strong case for the NCAA Tournament’s No. 1 overall seed.
Cameron McGriff led the Cowboys with 16 points.
TEXAS 67,
NO. 20 WEST VIRGINIA 57
Andrew Jones scored 22 points to lead Texas past No. 20 West Virginia in Austin, Texas.
Courtney Ramey added 21 points for Texas (17-11, 7-8 Big 12), which has won three in a row. The Mountaineers (19-9, 7-8) have lost six straight on the road in conference play.
West Virginia beat Texas by 38 points back on Jan. 20, the worst loss of Coach Shaka Smart’s five years with the Longhorns.