RECAP: FSU Basketball's Offense Goes Ice Cold In Second Half, Falls to Georgia Tech
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The game couldn't have been more different half-to-half if it tried. The first half was a back-and-forth affair, with both teams shooting around 50% from the floor. It was fast-paced, Darin Green Jr. was knocking down triples at a high level, and Georgia Tech was hitting shots at whatever pace they wanted.
Yet no matter how close Florida State got in the first half, or even when they took the lead on two separate occasions, Georgia Tech would respond immediately with a basket on the other end. The score at half was a 44-41 lead for Georgia Tech and it felt even higher scoring than that.
I don't know what they did to the baskets at halftime, but Florida State just could not hit shots. It took a little while for Georgia Tech to wake up too, as the teams started a combined 3/19 in the second half. Then the Yellow Jackets slowly started to wake up, using offensive rebounds, second-chance points, and trips to the free throw line to create some separation. After going 4/9 from 3 in the first half, FSU didn't hit a 3 until there was 2:25 remaining, going 0/6 to start the half.
That doesn't even describe how poor they were inside the arc in this game. I said in the preview that Florida State would likely have to shoot 50% or better on 2-pointers, but they shot just 9/25 (36%) on 2s in the second half. That just can't happen in a game you want to win, especially when you pair it with their inability to stop Georgia Tech on the other side of the ball. FSU had just 18 points in the first 16 minutes of the second half, before starting to add points too little, too late as the Yellow Jackets would go on to win 85-76.
Florida State was absolutely dominated on the glass by Georgia Tech: a total of 55-33 while the Yellow Jackets pulled down 21 offensive rebounds to 23 FSU defensive rebounds, which led to 21 second-chance points and 40 points in the paint. That's the game right there. If FSU were to cut those opportunities in half, they come out of Atlanta with a close win.
No one was especially good for FSU in this one. Jamir Watkins had a monster dunk in the first half, but was held in check throughout the second half for the most part. I know people will see 15 points and 7 rebounds, but he went 11 minutes without scoring to start the second half and 5 of those points came in garbage time. Still, this dunk was fun.
I have no idea what to think of Cam Corhen right now. You see 14 points and 7 rebounds and think that's a solid game, but if he had better hands and finished around the basket better, he could've easily had 20-25 points. As a whole, FSU was just 12/25 on layups and a few of those misses were courtesy of Corhen. He has plenty of talent, but he's getting his own way too often.
Baba Miller finished with 13 points, but he was just 5/13 from the floor and 1/4 from 3. Primo Spears also had 13 points, shooting 6/14 from the field and turning it over 4 times. Spears in particular had a rough second half.
After hitting three straight threes in a span of 1 minute and 17 seconds, Darin Green Jr. never scored again and he hadn't scored before that stretch either. He's too experienced of a player to be that quiet, allowing himself to be taken out of a game that easily, and was 0/3 in the second half.
I thought Taylor Bol Bowen had a nice stretch or two, really excited to see the player he becomes.
For Georgia Tech, Kyle Sturdivant was hitting timely 3s to take away momentum for Florida State, finishing with a game-high 20 points on senior night, shooting 4/6 from 3. Naithan George and Baye Ndongo each had 15 points. FSU did what they needed to do on Miles Kelly, as he was just 2/13 for 5 points, but GT got enough production everywhere else.
Two games left in the regular season for FSU: at Pitt on Tuesday night and home against Miami on Saturday.
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