Noles fall at No. 2 Virginia, 51-41

Florida State - Virginia games aren't safe. Last year a fight broke out when UVA decided to run an alley oop in the waning seconds after FSU had stopped defending. Two years ago Terrance Shannon got carted off the court strapped to a board. And then there was the Bernard James kick episode, which had James walking into the opposing locker room after the game to apologize.

This year it was Hoos-on-Hoos violence, as London Perrantes and Malcolm Brogdon had a scary collision going after a loose ball. Perrantes was down for a while, and appeared to have broken his nose. While he was down, Brogdon was whisked to the locker room for a quick patch job on his forehead.

When it happened, Virginia led 31-28 with 14:21 to play.

Brogdon was back in the game within a minute, but Perrantes sat out the rest of the night. With their point guard on the bench, FSU was able to pressure Virginia into a couple quick turnovers, and it looked like the Noles might have a chance to pull the huge upset.

But UVA's defense doesn't take plays off. With their offense struggling - FSU would hold them to their 2nd worst offensive performance of the season - they turned to their trademark defense. They held the Noles scoreless for a four minute stretch, and then again for another three minutes. FSU had a chance to cut it to one possession with a minute and a half left, but Devon Bookert's three off an inbounds play went halfway down before popping out.

By that time the Noles had to start fouling, and the game was over. UVA won 51-41 and has now held half of their ACC opponents below 50 points (Georgia Tech scored 28).

Xavier Rathan-Mayes had stretches of solid play, scoring a game high 13. But without much help from his teammates, the freshman resorted to taking a lot of bad shots and ended up making just 5-15 for the night. Boris Bojanovsky scored eight, and Montay Brandon had six points and eight rebounds.

FSU is now 7-8 in ACC play, and travels to Miami on Wednesday.