After picking up its first ACC victory of the season on Tuesday, Florida State aims for its first road win, against Syracuse at the Carrier Dome on Sunday night.
The Seminoles’ performance on Tuesday was a nice bounce-back effort after losing at Mississippi State less than a week prior. In FSU’s 86-75 victory over Virginia Tech, the Seminoles shot 52 percent from the floor, 50 percent from beyond the arc and held their biggest rebounding edge of the season to improve to 9-6 and 1-1 in ACC play.
Freshman guard Xavier Rathan-Mayes continues to be a promising all-around player for Florida State. Rathan-Mayes led four Seminoles in double-figures with 22 points and a team-high 3 assists against the Hokies. Rathan-Mayes leads the team, averaging 4.7 assists-per-game this season and ranks second in scoring with better than 12 points per contest.
Junior slasher Montay Brandon leads the team in both scoring and rebounding averaging 13.5 points and 5.5 boards. Brandon leads the team in minutes played and shoots 58 percent for a team that ranks in the top 35 nationally in field goal percentage.
Coming on of late for Florida State is junior guard Devon Bookert. Bookert has averaged 14.8 points over his last five games and is the Seminoles’ best 3-point shooter. Bookert’s hot spurt has the Alaska native, scoring better than 10 points-per-game for the season, but on just 38 percent shooting.
Syracuse isn’t currently in the top 25, but the Orange have played well early this season with a record of 11-4 and 2-0 in conference play. Syracuse’s two ACC wins have come by a combined three points. A pair of free throws by Rakeem Christmas lifted the Orange to a 46-45 victory over Georgia Tech on Wednesday.
Christmas has been by far Syracuse’s best player early on this season, averaging more than 17 points and nearly nine rebounds each time out. Christmas, a senior, is shooting 60 percent from the floor and has scored in double-figures in all but one of the Orange’s 15 contests this season.
Christmas, who ranks second in the ACC in scoring, should be a tough cover for Florida State’s tall front line that plays three 7-footers, but the Seminoles must also find a way to get a hand in the face of junior Trevor Cooney. 35 of Cooney’s 64 baskets this season have come from downtown. Cooney averages 13.2 points-per-game.
Junior guard Michael Gbinije and freshman forward Chris McCullough are each averaging just under 10 points while shooting good percentages from the floor for the Orange. McCullough is grabbing over seven rebounds-per-game. Freshman Kaleb Joseph ranks third in the ACC, averaging better than five assists-per-game.
In the first meeting between the teams as conference foes, Syracuse got the better of Florida State on Senior Day in Tallahassee last season with a 74-58 victory. C.J. Fair scored 22 points to pace the Orange while Okaro White finished with 20 points and 11 rebounds to lead the Seminoles.
Sunday’s game is set to begin just after 8:00 P.M. eastern time and will be broadcast on ESPNU.
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