Florida State men go 0-for-California with 78-71 loss at Stanford
The Florida State men’s basketball team needed a good trip out west to get themselves in contention to make a run at an at-large berth in the NCAA Tournament.
Instead, it was a completely fruitless trip to California.
The Seminoles followed up a loss at Cal on Wednesday night with a 78-71 defeat at Stanford on Saturday. Florida State is now 13-7 overall and 4-5 in the ACC. And the ‘Noles have won just one true road game all season long.
They couldn’t grab No. 2 on Saturday mainly because, once again, they couldn’t shoot from the perimeter. The Seminoles were just 6-of-21 from 3-point range while the Cardinal were 11-of-24.
That’s a 15-point difference for the two teams beyond the arc. On Wednesday night, the Seminoles were just 3-of-15 from 3-point range in the loss to Cal.
Florida State led for just 21 seconds at Stanford. And that was a 10-9 advantage very early in the game. Other than that, the Cardinal had a comfortable lead throughout.
Despite holding Stanford star Maxime Raynaud, who leads the conference in both scoring and rebounding, to eight points, the Seminoles’ defense wasn’t nearly good enough to pull off the upset road victory.
Stanford guard Oziyah Sellers erupted for a career-high 27 points (on 10-of-16 shooting from the floor and 4-of-6 from 3-point range) and Jaylen Blakes and Benny Gealer each had 13.
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Senior guard Jamir Watkins led the Florida State with 20 points, eight rebounds and two steals, but he also had a game-high six turnovers. Center Malique Ewin added 16 points and seven rebounds, and freshman guard Daquan Davis added 14.
But that trio didn’t get much help on offense.
Senior guard Justin Thomas, who is starting for the injured Chandler Jackson, once again didn’t make an impact at all on that end of the floor. It was his second straight scoreless game. He played 53 total minutes in California and failed to score a point.
Florida State shot just 38 percent from the field while the Cardinal, whose biggest lead was 68-54 with 5:30 left, shot 47.3 percent and picked up their third straight win.
Florida State will be looking to halt its two-game losing streak on Wednesday night when the Seminoles welcome the Virginia Tech Hokies to the Tucker Center.
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