After back-to-back wins, Florida State men throttled at Clemson
If there was one play to sum up what happened for the Florida State men’s basketball team on Saturday afternoon at Clemson, it happened with 3 minutes and 30 seconds remaining in the second half.
The Seminoles finally — finally — had an easy fast-break opportunity after Malique Ewin hit Daquan Davis with a perfect outlet pass. But Davis had his shot swatted from behind by Clemson star Chase Hunter. That led to a wide-open corner 3-pointer for the Tigers, which gave them a staggering 21-point lead and led to an eventual 77-57 win.
The game was well-decided before that sequence, but it was emblematic of just how one-sided Saturday’s contest was. Florida State trailed by seven points at the half, but that Clemson lead had ballooned to 18 just four minutes in the second period as the Seminoles just had no answers defensively for the Tigers most of the afternoon.
They didn’t have answers offensively either, as the Tigers controlled the tempo, throttled the FSU half-court attack and were never threatened in the final 20 minutes.
Florida State, which was coming off of back-to-back wins against Syracuse and Miami, shot just 43 percent from the floor and 25 percent from 3-point range.
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Leading scorer Jamir Watkins was held to just nine points. He was 3-of-12 from the floor and 2-of-8 from 3-point range (missing his last six). The rest of the Seminoles’ starters — aside from Ewin — struggled to score as well. Ewin had 15 points and nine rebounds; the rest of the starting five contributed five made baskets total.
Davis did have five assists and could have had a handful more if his teammates could’ve knocked down shots. But other than Ewin and Jerry Deng (11 points off the bench), the Seminoles didn’t have anybody score in double-figures.
Meanwhile, Clemson got 25 points from Hunter, 15 from Boston College transfer Jaeden Zackery and 12 from Chauncey Wiggins. The Tigers were also 13 of 28 from 3-point range, while the Seminoles were 4 of 16 — meaning they outscored the visitors by 27 points from behind the arc.
Florida State is now 11-5 overall and 2-3 in the ACC. The Seminoles return home on Wednesday night to play Pittsburgh at 9 p.m.
BOX SCORE: Clemson 77, FSU 57
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