Florida State Loses To Georgia, Blows 17 Point Lead In Final Minutes

Well, that was stunning. Florida State led this game 61-44 with about 8 minutes remaining, and looked in total control of this game, looking to cruise to another win.

They'd score five points the rest of the way, and Justin Hill would win the game for Georgia with a mid-range jumper with 1.5 seconds remaining to cap off an insane 24-5 run to close the game. Florida State could not buy a bucket for the majority of this game, got some untimely foul outs to key defenders on plays that really weren't fouls, and it cost them against a not-very-good Georgia team.

It started with an ugly, ugly first half, as the teams combined to shoot 16/58 and were both below 30% from the floor and below 25% from 3. It just wasn't pretty basketball. In the second half, it started with a bunch of runs, It was a 7-0 run for FSU, followed by a 10-2 run for UGA tied it at 37, and then a 21-4 run for Florida State felt like it would be enough to ice the game. But Georgia had one more run in them, and FSU lost the game. Florida State led for 35:54, and lost the game. That doesn't happen often.

Jordan Travis Shares Post-Surgery Update With FSU Football Fans

What ultimately cost Florida State was their inability to score in the first half and down the stretch, and some really bone-headed turnovers in the latter part of the game. Florida State had just four turnovers in the first 34 minutes of this game, five in the last 6 minutes. FSU shot just 2/9 in the final seven minutes, compared to UGA's 7/10, and Georgia made their free throws when it counted. At one point, Georgia was 7/16 from the free throw line but closed the game going 9/10. It was the opposite for the 'Noles, who were 13/14 before going 1/4 down the stretch.

It's a shame they wasted great performances from the Greens. Darin Green Jr finished with 21 points and 5 rebounds, going 8/16 from the floor and 4/8 from 3. That's what you want to see out of him. De'Ante Green had his third straight game in double figures, with yet another career-high 14 points, and adding in 9 rebounds. He's played good basketball, and as Jaylan Gainey gets back into game shape and Cam Corhen gets over a broken toe, they're going to need him.

Baba Miller contributed in a nice way: 9 points, 5 rebounds, 2 assists, and a block, and you could tell when he was not on the floor. He was a team-high +18 in just 23 minutes. His fifth foul was a double foul where his arm was wrapped up by Jalen DeLoach, I didn't agree with it at all and it made a huge impact on FSU's defense down the stretch.

No one else for FSU really showed up, and they just needed one more person to play decent basketball. Jamir Watkins struggled mightily: 7 points on 2/10 shooting, 5 rebounds, just 1 assist, 5 fouls and 4 really bad turnovers. The turnovers are becoming an issue with him having the ball in his hands so much, he can't be that careless with his passes. And as much praise as I gave Jalen Warley last game, he simply can't score 0 points in games like this, especially going 0/7 from the floor and 0/2 from the free throw line. Can't happen.

ESPN's Paul Finebaum on FSU Being Undefeated in CFP Discussion: 'So What?'

This was a much slower-paced game than I was expecting: just 68 possessions. Florida State wants to run and play fast, they didn't do much of that in this one.

For Georgia, freshman Silas Demary Jr led the way with 15 points, showing much more offensively than he normally does. Jabri Abdur-Rahim had 12 points, all coming from behind the arc. Justin Hill had 13 points off of the bench including the game-winning basket on a tough pull-up. RJ Melendez was huge off the bench as well, with 12 points, 11 rebounds, and 2 steals. That's the best basketball I've seen him play.

It's a crushing, crushing loss for Florida State who now travel to Chapel Hill to play UNC on Saturday, who just scored 100 on one of the best defenses in the country, so they better get over this loss quickly.

Stick with NoleGameday for more coverage of Florida State football throughout the 2023 season.

Follow NoleGameday on Twitter and Facebook