Florida State 76 Clemson 73
The ACC’s streak of early round close games continued on Wednesday, as Xavier Rathan-Mayes scored 30 points and Florida State held on for a drama-filled 76-73 win over Clemson on Wednesday in the second round of the ACC tournament.
Montay Brandon added 17 points for the ninth-seeded Seminoles (17-15), who actually led by 20 with just over nine minutes to play in the second half.
Trailing by 13 with less than two minutes left, the Tigers hit three three-pointers in a minute to pull within five, then scored off of a strange turnover when FSU’s Phil Cofer slipped and fell on his backside while trying to inbound the ball, basically handing it to Jaron Blossomgame under the basket, who then scored on a layup with 30.8 seconds left to make it 74-71.
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Rod Hall, who had a career-high 25 points for eighth-seeded Clemson (16-15), would later answer a free-throw by Cofer with two of his own, pulling the Tigers within two points at 75-73 with 25.2 seconds left. Clemson then got the ball back after Florida State turned the ball over on the following inbounds play. Hall drove the lane for a running jumper that failed to drop, and then Cofer put the Seminoles up three with a free throw with 9.5 seconds left.
The Tigers were able to get the ball to Gabe DeVoe with three seconds left, but his, deep three-pointer with about 3.2 seconds left bounced off the rim, and Jaron Blossomgame missed a meaningless put-back attempt as the buzzer sounded.
Blossomgame finished with 14 points and DeVoe added 10 for Clemson.
Up next: The Seminoles will face top-seeded Virginia at 12 p.m. ET on Thursday.
