It took two overtimes, but Florida State was able to complete its biggest comeback of the season and get back over the .500 mark on Wednesday night with a 82-76 victory over Wake Forest in a game that went back-and-forth at the Donald L. Tucker Center.
It was the freshmen that paced the Seminoles as Xavier Rathan-Mayes led the team in scoring for the third straight game, finishing with 21 points on 8-for-15 shooting and a team-high 5 assists. Phil Cofer added 19 points on 9-for-13 from the floor and grabbed a team-high 8 rebounds.
Florida State overcame an early 19-4 deficit to draw to within six at halftime and took its first lead on a 3-pointer by Devon Bookert with under 14 minutes to play. Wake Forest answered with an 8-1 run and neither team led by more than four for the duration of regulation which featured five lead changes.
FSU led 65-61 with just over a minute to play, but Wake Forest’s Codi Miller-McIntyre evened the game with a banked in jumper and a driving layup for four of his game-high 25 points.
The overtime period featured five lead changes as Cofer tied the game at 72 with under a minute to play by splitting a pair of free throws. Mitchell Wilbekin had a 3-point look at the potential game-winner in the closing seconds for Wake Forest, but his shot rimmed out.
The Demon Deacons scored the first three points in the second overtime, but the Seminoles closed the contest on a 10-1 run with Rathan-Mayes and Cofer accounting for nine of those points. Cofer’s dunk with 1:25 to go put Florida State ahead for good while Rathan-Mayes added a clutch jumper and a pair of free throws on the Seminoles’ next two possessions.
Bookert was the only other Florida State player to score in double-figures adding 15 points while making three of his four attempts from downtown. Bookert also came away with a game-high 4 steals. 7’3″ FSU junior Boris Bojanovsky tied a season-high with 4 blocked shots and reeled in 7 rebounds.
Wake Forest shot just 34 percent for the evening and only 8-for-27 from beyond the arc, but managed to stay in the game thanks to 22 offensive rebounds. The Demon Deacons (9-12, 1-7 ACC) held a 44-39 rebounding edge.
After being held scoreless in the first half, Devin Thomas scored 12 points for Wake Forest over the final 30 minutes and added 12 rebounds to finish with his fifth straight double-double and his 10th of the season. Freshman Cornelius Hudson had five of Wake’s eight makes from 3-point land to add a career-high 18 points.
The Demon Deacons will return home Saturday to face Virginia Tech in a match-up of teams that each have just one conference win. Florida State (11-10, 3-5 ACC) will play the second of three straight home games against rival Miami on Sunday.
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