Darin Green Jr. scores 24 as FSU Basketball goes on the road and stuns Pitt, 71-64
When the week started, the Florida State men’s basketball team didn’t have a single road victory all season.
Now, it has two.
Four days after cruising past Notre Dame in South Bend on Tuesday, the Seminoles went into Pittsburgh and knocked off the heavily favored Panthers, 71-64, on Saturday afternoon.
Darin Green Jr. scored 16 of his game-high 24 points in the second half, including a dagger 3-pointer from the top of the key with under two minutes remaining, and Matthew Cleveland and Caleb Mills both finished with 11 as the Seminoles improved to 7-13 overall and 5-4 in the ACC.
Pitt drops to 13-7 overall and 6-3 in the league.
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On Tuesday, FSU stormed out to a 32-8 lead over the Fighting Irish. Saturday wasn’t nearly as good a start as the host Panthers raced out to a 15-5 lead barely five minutes into the game.
From then on, though, the rest of the half belonged to the Seminoles.
Florida State was 7-of-12 from 3-point range in the first 20 minutes and then put the clamps down on the Panthers’ offense. Pitt made five of its first seven shots in the game, but then hit on just four of its next 21 to close out the half as FSU took a 39-29 lead into the locker room.
That lead disappeared quickly in the second half, as the Panthers made their inevitable run, taking a 48-45 lead with 13 minutes left on a Blake Hinson 3-pointer.
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Again, though, FSU responded. Well, more to the point Green Jr. responded.
He scored eight straight points for the Seminoles to give them the lead. And then Mills found freshman De’Antre Green for back-to-back layups and a 60-56 advantage.
Florida State never trailed again. And even when Pitt cut the lead to one on a runner by Jamarius Burton with 2:19 left, the Seminoles again had the answer as Green Jr. buried that pull-up 3 from the top of the key to give FSU a 68-64 lead.
Pitt never scored again.
And now Florida State is back above .500 in ACC play. The Seminoles play again on Tuesday night at home against No. 17 Miami, which lost, 68-66, at Duke on Saturday.
Cleveland’s streak of eight straight double-doubles came to an end as he finished with 11 points and eight rebounds.
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