Florida State’s men's basketball's ACC home streak snapped after loss to Syracuse
Florida State’s men’s basketball team has been one of the toughest teams in the country to beat at home.
But the Seminoles’ early-season struggles weren’t enough to overcome even on familiar ground on Saturday, and it cost them a chance at history.
Caleb Mills’ 16 points and Malik Osborne’s 10 points and eight rebounds weren’t enough to overcome a prolonged second-half scoring drought which sent the Seminoles to a 63-60 loss to Syracuse at the Tucker Civic Center.
FSU (5-3, 0-1 ACC) had its 25-game home winning streak against ACC opponents snapped and fall one win short of tying Duke’s conference-record 26-game streak set from 1997-2000.
FSU had an 11-game overall home winning streak snapped, and lost for the first time at the Tucker Center since suffering an 86-74 defeat against UCF on Dec. 19th, 2020.
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It was the Seminoles’ first home loss to an ACC opponent since an 80-78 loss to Duke on Jan. 12th, 2019.
FSU lost at home for only the fifth time in its past 85 home games.
“Personally I feel like there could have been a little pressure. We knew how much this game meant not just for us but for the program,” Osborne said. “There was pressure and some guys are playing different roles than they have before and haven’t been in these situations before. It was a tough shooting night overall for us. It was a mental battle for guys who hadn’t hit shots up to that moment and we’re trying to make the right play.”
Against Syracuse' zone defense, FSU shot a dismal 4-for-30 from 3-point range for the game, and 9-for-32 overall in the second half.
Mills and Osborne each had chances to tie the game and got decent looks from 3-point range in the closing seconds. But each shot drew only rim and Syracuse (5-3, 1-0 ACC) hung on for its first win in Tallahassee since beating the Seminoles 74-58 on March 9th, 2014.
"We’re extremely disappointed that we couldn’t execute those open looks and make the plays we needed down the stretch," FSU coach Leonard Hamilton said. "I thought there were a couple of periods where we just couldn’t put the ball in the basket. In the second half, we had excellent opportunities. We just couldn’t maintain the scoring output and we dug that hole that was very difficult for us to get out of. I thought we executed our offense to where we had open looks and uncontested shots. They just weren’t falling for us.”
FSU trailed by as many as 10 points in the second half as Syracuse went on a 14-1 run to take the lead for good. The Orange had four players score in double figures led by Cole Swider and Joseph Girard III, who each had 16 points.
Syracuse capitalized on FSU’s offensive struggles as the Seminoles went five minutes and 57 seconds without a made field goal during the Orange’s run until Naheem McLeod’s emphatic dunk cut the deficit to 43-40 with 11:07 left.
McLeod returned to action after missing the Seminoles’ previous game with an ankle injury. McLeod finished with six points and four rebounds.
Osborne cut the deficit to 61-60 with 42 seconds left and then came up with a steal in the paint. But as Anthony Polite tried to make a play at the other end, he lost the ball out of bounds on a drive to the hoop with 12.5 left.
Anthony Polite finished with six points, four rebounds and four assists.
Swider hit a pair of free throws with 10 seconds left to extend the lead to three points.
Lack of inside experience hurting
Hamilton noted that the lack of enough of an inside game so far this season hurt the Seminoles in terms of being able to balance their perimeter struggles.
FSU outscored Syracuse 28-22 in the paint and drew even on the boards 28-28, but allowed 13 second-chance points as center Jesse Edwards totaled 11 points and 12 rebounds and Swider also had 10 rebounds.
The Seminoles played without starting 7-foot-2 center Tanor Ngom for the second consecutive game. Ngom is expected to miss at least six weeks with a right knee strain.
“The challenge for us is that we’ve been accustomed to having an interior presence to balance our perimeter game," Hamilton said. "We could have attacked the basket more off the ball reversals, but I thought their defense had something to do with it. We had the looks I thought would have given us the opportunity to maintain. It’s one of those nights where they just didn’t fall.”
Evans returns
Starting point guard Rayquan Evans returned after missing the previous two games to be with his family in the wake of his brother’s passing due to a rare form of leukemia.
Evans finished with nine points and six rebounds in 23 minutes.
The Seminoles held Syracuse to a dismal 2 for 18 shooting to open the game. But the Orange rectified their shooting slump in the second half, making 14 of 28 (50 percent) while FSU went 9 for 32 from the field over the final 20 minutes including a 3-for-17 output from 3-point range.
“You come back with a heavy heart and you haven’t been practicing very much, but because this is his third year he was more familiar with what we needed and I thought he gave us good leadership," Hamilton said. "Our first-year players gave a pretty good account of themselves, but we weren’t quite as crisp and we had two or three dry spells where our execution just wasn’t as sharp as some of the more experienced teams we’ve had.”
Up next
Florida State will be back on the road after a week off when they take on South Carolina on Dec. 12th at noon in the No Room for Racism Classic in Rock Hill, S.C. The Seminoles are 16-14 all-time against South Carolina. The Gamecocks won the most recent meeting 69-68 in Tallahassee in overtime on March 21st, 2006. The game will be broadcast on ESPN2.
Reach Andre Fernandez at afernandez@tallahassee.com or follow him on Twitter @FernandezAndreC.
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This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: FSU men's hoops falls 63-60 to Syracuse snapping near-record streak
