FSU 67, Charleston Southern 59

In the preview I noted that this would be the type of game where FSU just needed to secure a W and move on. Against Charleston Southern, who does nothing but shoot 3s, weird things were likely to happen. And sure enough, they did. The Buccaneers only made eight 2s all night, and turned the ball over 17 times against FSU's man-to-man. But with plenty of time left in regulation they used 10-23 3pt shooting to keep the game close. Luckily, they would go on to miss their final six 3-pt attempts, and FSU was able to escape with an eight point win.

FSU's offense never quite found its rhythm vs CSU's zone defense. Charleston Southern pretty much abandoned the offensive glass in the first half in lieu of getting back and setting up their trapping zone. When FSU was patient, they were able to work the ball inside, but the Noles offense wants to get out and run and CSU pretty much kept that in check. The Noles got a few transition buckets in the 2nd half once CSU began fighting for rebounds.

It was a good tuneup for FSU before conference play, which begins on Saturday.

Aaron Thomas, who won this week's ACC player of the week award, had a game high 19 points, making 6-8 2s and 2-4 3s. Ian Miller had 15 points and 3 steals. Montay Brandon had 9 points and 6 rebounds, and Devon Bookert had a career best 9 assists, and also added 7 rebounds.

Okaro White had a rough game, and fouled out with more than five minutes remaining after scoring just 2 points.

The game wrapped up FSU's out of conference play with a very successful 9-3 record. They suffered zero bad losses, and got a couple of wins which will look great come March. As of today, they're in great position for the NCAA tournament, but there is a long conference season to be played.