3 Takeaways as FSU Basketball Survives Slugfest Against Cal

Florida State was back at home on Wednesday night as the Cal Golden Bears came to Tallahassee, and the cross-country travel games are tough to play in for whoever is traveling. Cal has won just one true road game outside of the state of California since joining the ACC last year.

This game was a slugfest early. Chauncey Wiggins hit two three-pointers out of the gate, and then the Seminoles would hit just 1 of their next 14 shots. Lucky for them, Cal wasn't much better. They started the game 5/8 before hitting just 4 of the 20 shots they took the rest of the half. That allowed Florida State to close the half on a strong note.

Over the final 6:30 of the first half, Florida State outscored Cal 18-4, which allowed the Seminoles to take a 36-23 lead into the break. Chauncey Wiggins was a perfect 5/5 from the floor in that half, but they were also winning the turnover margin 8-2. When you do that while holding your opponent to 9/28 shooting in a half, you should have a big lead, and that's exactly what happened.

Cal started the second half strong, cutting the lead to 7 in the first 5:30 of the half, but an and-one from Robert McCray V helped stabilize things, pushing the lead back up to 10.

For the next few minutes, the lead bounced between 6 and 9. Neither team was able to establish much rhythm offensively, as Cal kept turning it over and not taking advantage of a sluggish FSU offense. It didn't help that Robert McCray V was dealing with foul trouble, and the Seminoles went through a stretch where they were 1/8 from the floor. That's what allowed Cal to make it a 6-point game on a few different occasions.

Coming out of the under-eight media timeout, Lajae Jones missed the front-end of a one-and-one, and Alex Steen fouled Justin Pippen on the other end, who would make both, making it a four-point game. Kobe MaGee split a pair of free throws on the next trip, and John Camden sank one from the corner to cut the lead to 2. Alex Steen hit a layup, but Cal hit ANOTHER three to make it a one-point game.

Robert McCray V entered the game with just over four minutes remaining and with the lead at one, but he turned it over, and Cal took a lead before McCray made up for it and got to the rim. The next few minutes were... interesting, to say the least. Florida State was missing free throws, Cal was missing shots, and no points were scored for 2 minutes in a one-point game. With 20 seconds left, FSU ran a good play to get Kobe MaGee open for three at the top of the key. He missed, but Lajae Jones was fouled, sending him to the line with 9.8 seconds remaining. And with how free throws had been all night, this was nerve-wracking.

Jones missed the first, then made the second to make it a 2-point game. A deep three from Justin Pippen would be just off the mark, and Florida State would hang on for their first ACC home win of the season, 63-61.

Florida State will host Stanford on Saturday. Here are three overreactions from this ugly win.

FINAL: Florida State hangs on to beat Cal 63-61, giving FSU its first ACC home win of the season

FSU did just about everything they could to lose with his free-throw shooting, but they juuuust get the win

C Wiggins 18 pts, 5 reb
R McCray 11 pts

NEXT: vs Stanford Sat. #Noles pic.twitter.com/c03jfFbxOm
— Austin Veazey (@EasyVeazeyNG) January 29, 2026

1. Cross Country Games Are Tough For Teams

Florida State didn't play particularly well in this game, but they were still able to get a mostly comfortable win because of how hard these cross-country games are. There's a reason Cal has won just one road game outside the state of California in the last two years.

2. Free Throws...

It really doesn't make sense how poor a free-throw shooting team Florida State is. They have a lot of naturally talented shooters, but they have not shot well at the line all season, and that was no different in this game. Florida State shot just 11/21 from the line in this game. Even making half of those misses makes this a much different game.

3. More Lineups With Cam Miles and Robert McCray, Please

Sometimes, Robert McCray V has too much on his plate, so having another reliable ball-handler in the lineup can help space the floor a little bit. Cam Miles has had a mostly rough ACC showing, but he's the best ball-handler on the roster outside of McCray, as Martin Somerville just doesn't have a tight enough handle. And with McCray often getting in foul trouble, having someone else used to handling the ball would be nice to have.

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