McCray fuels offense and Bassong dominates boards as Noles defeat Georgia Tech. Florida State claws above .500, building momentum.
The Seminoles (15-14, 8-8 ACC) are gaining momentum headed into March, as they picked up their fourth win in the last five games with a wire-to-wire 80-71 victory against Georgia Tech in Atlanta on Saturday.
Senior guard Robert McCray V, Florida State's leading scorer, lead the Noles with 20 points, adding five assists and two steals. McCray has been an offensive force during the last five games, averaging 20.4 points per game.
Freshman big man Thomas Bassong played his best game of the season, with 14 points and 12 rebounds for his first collegiate double-double. Bassong led Florida State in out-rebounding the Yellow Jackets 44-34.
Bassong and the rest of Florida State's front court made it their mission to attack the paint, outscoring Georgia Tech 38-14 in inside scoring. Much of this can be credited to the defense played on Yellow Jackets starting forward Baye Ndongo.
Ndongo has had a nice season for Georgia Tech, averaging 12.2 points and 8.2 rebounds on efficient 55.8-percent shooting. However, Ndongo was held scoreless against the Noles, fouling out in just 16 minutes of play. This was his first time failing to score this season.
Noles coach Luke Loucks said dominating the paint helped his team capture a victory.
"The game plan was to win the transition battle and win the paint battle, and we held them to 14 paint points," Loucks told reporters following Saturday's game at McCamish Pavilion in Atlanta. "Which I think was their season low and and we had 38. We felt like we would have a really good chance not giving up open threes, but just packing the paint against this team and forcing them to shoot."
Florida State's defense was solid throughout the game, holding Georgia Tech to 22-62 (35-percent) shooting from the field, more than nine full percentage points below the Jackets' average of 44.2 percent.
The Noles will travel to Pittsburgh for the final away game of their season Wednesday at 9:00 p.m. (ET), as they look to continue their push to the ACC Tournament. This Pittsburgh squad has struggled mightily in conference play, dropping six of their last eight games.
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