For the first time in six tries, Florida State defeated rival Florida on the hardwood thanks to an accidental tip into the wrong basket by Florida forward Jacob Kurtz with less than a second remaining. The tip-in served as the winning basket as the Seminoles notched a 65-63 victory at the Donald L. Tucker Center Tuesday night.
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Florida State led 61-56 with under a minute to play, but a 3-point play by Florida’s Kasey Hill, who led the Gators with 17 points, and a missed layup by FSU’s Xavier Rathan-Mayes gave the Gators life down by two. After an offensive rebound by Kurtz off a missed three, Hill found Dorian Finney-Smith near the basket to even the contest at 63.
Florida State crossed midcourt and called timeout with three seconds left. Out of the timeout, Devon Bookert heaved a 3-point shot toward the rim while falling out of bounds. In an attempt to grab the defensive rebound, Kurtz knocked the ball in for FSU, giving the Seminoles their fourth straight victory.
The contest was not pretty as the teams combined for 32 turnovers and 8-for-36 shooting from beyond the 3-point line. The Seminoles trailed by as many as seven in the first half, but managed to lead by as many as seven points in the second.
After Florida used an 8-0 run to take a 38-35 lead in the second half, Florida State responded with a 14-4 run to go up 49-42. The Seminoles never trailed again.
Montay Brandon tied a game-high with 17 points and led four Seminoles (8-5) in double-figures. Rathan-Mayes scored 13 points, Bookert added 12 and 7’3” center Boris Bojanovsky chipped in with 10 points off the bench. Rathan-Mayes and Bojanovsky each finished with team-highs of 3 assists and 2 steals.
In addition to Hill’s 17, Dorian Finney-Smith scored 14 points and pulled down 7 rebounds for Florida (7-5). Michael Frazier II was the only other Gator to score in double-figures, adding 11 points, but on just 4-for-12 shooting.
FSU held a slight rebounding edge, 38-37. Each team’s leading rebounder came off the bench. Kurtz led the Gators and Jarquez Smith paced FSU. Each player had 8 boards to go with 4 points.
Florida State will look to run its winning streak to five games on Friday night as it visits Mississippi State. With the loss, Florida had its 4-game winning streak snapped. The Gators will look to start a new one as they host Connecticut on Saturday.
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