FSU went back to the defense they employed versus UMass - switching on every screen - and once again dominated a smaller opponent who couldn't take advantage of mismatches. For the 3rd time this season FSU limited an opponent to 0.70 points per possession or less. That makes ten such games for the ACC this year and Virginia and FSU account for six of those. FSU limited the Buccaneers to 31.3% on 2s and 28% on 3s on their way to a 76-51 win. That's the good news.
The bad news was (once again) the offense. Don't let 76 points fool you. This was an uptempo game (73 possessions) and being held to 1.03 per trip by a defense ranked north of 200 is nothing to be happy about. Despite playing a team that had zero players the size of FSU's small forward the Seminoles repeatedly settled for threes outside the flow of the offense, and attempted 26 for the night (making 30.8%). As expected, the Seminoles dominated on the inside when they chose to, converting over 61% on 2s. Turnovers were the other problem, with FSU coughing it up on 29% of their trips.
Okaro White led all scorers with 20, and added 7 boards and 3 assists. Xavier Gibson and Bernard James each had 12.
FSU next takes the court on Sunday against UNC Greensboro.