FSU dominates first half, hangs on for narrow win over Cal

Last year, Florida State (9-12, 2-6) saw their once promising season fall apart on a two-game road swing to California. This year the ‘Noles got revenge, handing the Cal Bears (15-6, 3-5) a brutal loss for the NCAA Tourney hopes, 63-61. After building a 13 point halftime lead, FSU’s shooting collapsed in the second. But the Seminoles did just enough on the offensive glass, and got some timely help from California miscues, to walk away victoriously. Hat tip to my colleague, Michael Rogner, who summed it up well: “Someone had to win this game, I’m glad it was us.”

First Half

The Seminoles took an early 6-0 lead on the strength of two Chauncey Wiggins threes. That’s typically a good sign of subsequent effort on defense for this team and true to form, FSU forced turnovers on multiple California possessions. These turnovers resulted in a couple of point blank looks for the ‘Noles, but unfortunately the hot start by Wiggins did not extend to anyone else wearing white. Florida State missed 13 of their next 14 shots, while the Bears heated up from deep. The six point lead melted like a snowman in March sun, with Cal tying it up at the 16:28 mark and then taking a 14-8 lead a few minutes later.

Coach Loucks called a 30 second timeout to get things sorted out and the brief reset had its intended effect. A.J. Swinton checked into the game and made his presence felt with a steal on defense and back-to-back threes from the right wing at the other end, the second of which tied the game at 16.

The two schools played some back and forth basketball over the next four minutes, looking like a class ACC battle between FSU and the visitors from the Pacific Coast. Enter Mr. Wiggins. The senior hit his third three of the game with 4:21 left in the opening half to give FSU a two possession lead, 25-19. After Cal cut it to four, Wiggins hit a turnaround jumper in the paint to stretch the lead back to six. He then grabbed a defensive board on the next Cal possession and got the outlet to freshman Cam Miles who finished with an acrobatic layup to give FSU the largest lead of the game for either team.

The ‘Noles weren’t done. Robert McCray V dropped in a tough layup of his own before Lajae Jones scored three the old-fashioned way. Jones would also get a layup to go with 12 seconds and then closed out the half with a defensive rebound giving the Seminoles a 36-23 lead heading into the locker room.

Second Half

Starting the second stanza with a double digit lead against a top 200 opponent is unfamiliar territory for this FSU team and it showed. Florida State came out sloppy with the basketball and getting away from some of the tenacious defense and rebounding that led to the 11-2 half-closing run. This allowed the Bears to trim the 13 point deficit to only seven in the first five minutes. Sensing the momentum clearly starting to shift, McCray V attacked the basket and got a tough runner to fall plus the harm, pushing the lead back to 10.

The margin bounced between 8 and 10 for the next stretch, with neither team stringing many positive plays together. Justin Pippen briefly cut the margin to six on a deep three, but Wiggins quickly ended the threat with a hoop and harm three-point play. Cal would again cut it to three on a perimeter shot, but Thomas Bassong knocked down a pair of freebies to extend it to eight once again.

However, the ‘Noles were clearly leaking oil. Shots that were falling in the first half started clanking iron. This was particularly true from outside the arc as FSU made just 1 of their first 10 attempts from deep in the second half. And while FSU limited their overall turnovers, the ones they had in the second half were deadly, leading to easy buckets for the Bears. The easy points helped Cal’s shooters catch fire and slowly but surely the FSU lead was whittled down to one, 55-54 with 6:15 to play. Martin Somerville sank bucket in the lane to get the margin back to three, but Cal was undeterred, taking a 59-58 lead with just under four minutes left following a McCray V spin-move turnover. McCray V made up for it with a more aggressive take to the rack on the following possession, putting FSU back in front 60-59, but the Bears tied it at 60 with a split pair of free throws.

Wiggins gave FSU a 62-60 lead on a soft jumper with 2:59 left, a lead that was quickly cut to one on another split-pair by Cal. At this point both teams hit the struggle bus. Turnovers, poor shot attempts, and in FSU’s case horrific free throw shooting kept the score locked at 62-61 all the way until there were 9.8 seconds left, when Jones finally made the second half of a pair from the stripe to give FSU a 63-61 lead. Cal’s wide open three point attempt clanked off the rim just before the buzzer and FSU escaped.

Box Score and Takeaway

• Chief of the Court – Chauncey Wiggins. His shooting gave FSU an early shot in the arm and also ensured they closed the first half well. Down the stretch, his bucket with three minutes to go ultimately proved to be the winning basket, and his defensive rebound with about 35 seconds left helped closed the door.
• Lajae Jones hasn’t shot the ball from three nearly as well as his early-season 10-21 explosion teased. In fact, half his made threes on the season came in the first five games. That said, major credit to him for finding other ways to impact the game. The athletic and physical guard has become an impact defender and rim protector, crashes the offensive (five offensive boards in this one!) and defensive glass, and has even started to use his size to back down smaller defenders when his outside shot isn’t falling. Those “other” contributions are why Jones finished the game with a team leading +13, despite finishing 3-14 from the field.
• Martin Somerville looks more and more comfortable running the offense as the season wears on. He doesn’t have the elite handle that Cam Miles has, nor the explosive first step of McCray V. But he displays strong vision, nice patience, and a solid understanding of what a Luke Loucks offense is supposed to look like. In this one he had 4 assists to just 1 turnover, showing he could potentially be FSU’s point guard next season if needed.
• Speaking of guys hoping to earn more playing time, A.J. Swinton played well enough in the first half to be first man off the bench in the second. More than that, he was on the court for most of the close out minutes too. For someone who’s been the definition of inconsistent during his time in Tallahassee, this game would be a nice building block for turning into the kind of player who draws interest from professional teams down the road.

Up Next

FSU hosts the other half of the west coast duo as the Stanford Cardinal complete their Florida swing with a visit to the Tucker Center. The game tips at 6:00pm so we’ll see if the shooting can heat up despite the frigid temps expected outside.