The Florida State Seminoles picked up an important signature win over in-state rival No. 21 Florida Gators 83-78 on Sunday afternoon to improve to 10-1 on the young season.
Led by Sophomore Dwayne Bacon’s explosive 16-point second half performance, the ‘Noles opened the game up for a majority of the second half giving them an important win over a ranked opponent and beating the Gators for the third year in a row.
“We had some moments where we were indecisive, but we showed the ability to recover quick when we made mistakes,” Head coach Leonard Hamilton said following the victory. “This is the type of game that will help you grow up a little bit.”
It was a tale of two halves for the standout guard, Bacon. He had a career high 24 points shooting 9-18 from the floor.
“He’s (Bacon) is just really, really talented,” Head coach Mike White said. “I thought he broke down our defense again early second half and probably gained a little bit of confidence.”
Bacon was accompanied by Terrance Mann who registed a double-double with 16 point and 10 rebounds. Michael Ojo contributed eight of his own points and seven rebounds.
He was accompanied by Terrance Mann’s double-double, Mann had 16 points and 10 rebounds.
The University of Florida fell to 7-2 on the season, after losing to Duke earlier in the season. The Gators have played 10 of an 11 game road trip. Coach White refused to use the road trip as an excuse though.
“I appreciate you trying to give us an excuse but Florida State is a better team than us. We practice, our guys have embraced practicing hard, they’ve worked hard and we’ve given them plenty of days off. It’s more of maturity mentality, a mental and physical toughness thing.”
Florida had the Florida State lead trimmed to just three with just 1:37 remaining, but Jonathan Isaac converted three of four free throws to extent the lead to five where it would stay.
The Gators were led offensively by Kasey Hill who had 21 points and KeVaughn Allen who finished with 16 points.
The Seminoles will take the week off to focus on Final exams. They will return to action on Dec. 17th against Manhattan, that game will tip off at 1:30 P.M.
