Yahoo Finance No. 16 FSU wins in another blowout, 81-59 over the injury-plagued Miami Hurricanes
Even with a full roster, beating 16th-ranked Florida State is a tall task these days. But with only six scholarship players and two walk-ons, it was too much for the Miami Hurricanes to handle. The Seminoles stomped the Canes 81-59 on Wednesday night in Tallahassee to extend their winning streak to five games – most of those by blowouts.
They have beaten four of their past five opponents by an average of 21.5 points, including a 105-73 rout of North Carolina State and an 80-61 win over then-No. 20 Clemson in a game in which FSU led by as many as 38.
FSU, the defending ACC regular-season champion, improved to 10-2 and 6-1 in the conference. It was the Seminoles’ 22nd consecutive home win over an ACC opponent, second-best in league history, and their sixth straight victory over Miami. The Hurricanes dropped to 6-9 and 2-8 in the conference.
The injury-plagued Canes were missing five scholarship players, including freshman Matt Cross, who was in uniform but did not play due to “a coach’s decision,” said UM coach Jim Larranaga.
Point guard Chris Lykes has not played since injuring his ankle on Dec. 4. Other injured players included freshman Earl Timberlake (shoulder), Elijah Olaniyi (shoulder), and Rodney Miller (knee) and Sam Waardenburg (foot) who are both out for the season.
It was clear from the start that it might be a long night for the Canes, as they had more turnovers (7) than points (5) in the early minutes. The Seminoles went on a 16-0 first-half run to pull ahead 33-11 as Miami went scoreless for over six minutes. Miami scored nine straight points late in the first half to close the gap to seven, but that was as close as they’d get all night.
FSU has such a deep bench that 14 players got into the game and 11 of them scored. Miami, by contrast, had just eight active players. The Seminoles used their size and depth to dominate the Hurricanes 45-23 on the boards.
“Florida State is really an outstanding team,” said Larranaga. “They’re very deep, very talented. We were not able to stay with them in the first half until the very closing minutes…I thought we did a really good job to start the second half. We got it within [nine] and then we had a couple of easy shots that didn’t go down for us and they ran off [12] straight points ... and we were never able to recover from that.”
Florida State’s offense was averaging 86.3 points over its previous four games and kept the hot shooting going on Wednesday.
The Seminoles shot 51.5 percent from the field and 78.6 percent from the free throw line. Miami shot 37 percent from the field and 58 percent from the line.
Miami has gone 3-9 since starting the season 3-0. After struggling from three-point range in recent games, including 3-of-22 in the previous game against Notre Dame, the Canes went 9-of-23 from behind the arc.
Isaiah Wong led the Hurricanes with 21 points on 6-of-16 shooting. Anthony Walker and Kam McGusty had 13 points apiece.
Malik Osborne had 11 points and 10 rebounds for FSU, RaiQuan Gray added 10 points and 11 rebounds. M.J. Walker and Sardaar Calhoun each chipped in 11 points.
UM is back on the road Saturday against Wake Forest. FSU plays at Georgia Tech Saturday.
