Florida State dropped back below the .500 mark Monday after its rally fell short in a 70-65 loss to Nebraska in the ACC/Big Ten Challenge. The Seminoles whittled what was an 18-point lead down to one before falling to 3-4 on the season.
The Seminoles will return home Saturday to take on UCF and close a stretch of four straight home games. The Knights come in with a record of 5-1.
The good news for Florida State is that junior guard Aaron Thomas is back in the lineup after missing time to injury. Thomas scored 11 points in his return on Monday and will be joining leading scorer, Xavier Rathan-Mayes as the starters in the Florida State backcourt.
Rathan-Mayes, a redshirt freshman, is averaging 14.3 points-per-game and has been the top scorer for the Seminoles in each of the last four games. Rathan-Mayes assumed the starting point guard role when Devon Bookert went down with a foot injury.
Though Florida State was unable to grab the victory last time out, 7’3″ center Boris Bojanovsky recorded FSU’s first double-double of the year, finishing with 10 points and a game-high 10 rebounds. Junior Montay Brandon has been Florida State’s best rebounder this season, grabbing 6.4 per game. He’s also averaging 12 points and shooting 60 percent from the field.
UCF’s early 5-1 record has come against a largely suspect schedule. Four of the Knights’ five wins have come by single-digits and their loss came by 26 points at home to Davidson.
Freshman guard B.J. Taylor has been UCF’s best all-around player by far to this point in the season. Taylor leads UCF in scoring with 12.8 points-per-game and ranks second on the team with four assists-per-contest.
Adonys Henriquez averages nearly 12 points for UCF while senior forward Kasey Wilson is scoring nearly 10 per game while leading the team with a 5.7 rebounds-per-game average.
Saturday’s contest will be the second meeting between FSU and UCF in as many years. Behind 18 points from Ian Miller and 20 forced turnovers, the Seminoles took the victory, 80-68 in Orlando last year.
This weekend’s game is scheduled to tip off after 2:00 P.M. eastern time and will be shown on ESPN3.
Add The Sports Daily to your Google News Feed!
