The Seminoles are suddenly rolling on the hardwood after a rigid start to the season. Here's how FSU topped Stanford.
Florida State men's basketball is suddenly surging in Atlantic Coast Conference play.
At least by starting their first conference winning streak. Plus sweeping the Bay Area representatives in the process.
Fresh off knocking off a stout Cal team on Thursday, FSU led for nearly 30 minutes against an even better Stanford team on Saturday -- ultimately hanging on for the 88-80 victory on Saturday afternoon inside the Tucker Center.
Stanford was a 20-win basketball team last season under Kyle Smith. The Cardinal entered Tallahassee 14-7 overall, but riding a three-game losing streak.
The Noles (10-12) made it four in a row for Stanford (14-8). while winning their second straight ACC contest.
Florida State controlled the tempo throughout the night, even building a 19-point lead at the 11:38 mark of the second half. Alex Steen threw down a dunk off an assist via Robert McCray V to hand FSU the 63-44 lead. Steen added one more dunk later on that gave the Noles a 68-49 lead.
Thomas Bassong got FSU to 70 points at the 9:46 mark through his own jam through the net. Stanford attempted to create one final run but ultimately, Florida State built way too high of a margin and eventually sealed the win.
Chauncey Wiggins nailed a 25-foot three-pointer at the 6:17 mark -- which became the final long range field goal on the side of the Seminoles.
Florida State scored seven of its last nine points from the free throw line. McCray V hit the first two, then added two more. McCray, though, ended the final stretch scoring six points...with the sixth coming off a 4-foot dunk with under a minute left.
But McCray shook up the rim and ignited the home crowd with this thunderous dunk:
Wiggins led the FSU scoring charge with 23 points off 6-of-13 shooting including hitting a quartet of threes.
McCray ended with 19 points and dished out seven assists. Lajae Jones added 18 points with 5-of-10 shooting. Steen scored 12 on the evening while bench player Kobe McGee tacked on 10 in reserve duty.
Stanford managed to watch Ebuka Okorie lead all scorers through hitting 26 points. No one on the Cardinal, however, scored past 12 points.
Florida State is now 10-12 overall and 3-6 in ACC play. This is also the first conference winning streak for first-year head coach Luke Loucks.
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