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FSU men rally, come up short in 89-81 loss at No. 25 Louisville

On3 imageby:Corey Clark•about 14 hours•

Corey_Clark

On3 image
Florida State guard Daquan Davis brings the ball up the court Saturday at Louisville. (Courtesy of FSU Sports Information)

The Florida State men’s basketball team played even with No. 25 Louisville for much of Saturday afternoon.

And actually outplayed the Cardinals for multiple stretches.

But it was the first 15 minutes where the game was decided. The Seminoles got down 39-19 with 5:07 left in the first half and never quite caught back up in an eventual 89-81 loss at Louisville.

Florida State is now 16-11 overall and 7-9 in the ACC. Louisville has won 14 of its last 15 games and improves to 21-6 and 14-2.

After a horrible start, in which FSU had 10 turnovers and just seven made baskets in the first 15 minutes, the offense clicked just about as well it has all year long in an ACC game.

Jamir Watkins finished with 23 points and Malique Ewin had 19 points and 9 rebounds in 28 minutes (he sat a large portion of the first half after picking up his second foul) for the Seminoles, who scored 50 points in the second half on 61 percent shooting from the floor.

Again though, it was those first 15 minutes that lost this one for FSU.

The Seminoles didn’t hit their first shot from the floor until 5 1/2 minutes into the game and committed a number of careless, unforced turnovers that resulted in points for the Cardinals on the other end.

Florida State had 12 turnovers at the half that resulted in 15 points for Louisville, which went into halftime leading 45-31. The Seminoles only committed two in the second half, which is why they were able to get back in the game and stay in the game in the final 20 minutes.

They fought back immediately in the second half, cutting the deficit to just eight points on a Daquan Davis 3-pointer from the wing with 16 minutes left. The lead fluctuated between 8 and 12 points for much of the rest of the half with neither team able to string together many stops. Louisville couldn’t stop FSU’s hot shooting from the floor.

Florida State couldn’t stop fouling.

The lead was cut to six on multiple occasions, but the Seminoles could never draw closer as the Cardinals’ parade to the free throw line was just too much to overcome.

Louisville star point guard Chucky Hepburn finished with 29 points on the day thanks to his 17 made free throws (on 19 attempts). All told, the Cardinals were 30 of 34 from the free throw line as FSU was called for 25 fouls in total.

J’Vonne Hadley added 18 and 11 for Louisville and Terrence Edwards finished with 16 points, which included a number of contested finishes in the paint.

Davis was the only other Seminole in double figures. He finished with 10 points and three steals before fouling out.

Ewin wound up going 9 of 10 from the field on Saturday after going 10 of 10 in the win over Miami on Wednesday night.

Florida State returns home on Monday night to take on the North Carolina Tar Heels.

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