The Florida State Seminoles (12-9) will take on the Virginia Tech Hokies (18-13) in the second round of the ACC tournament. FSU advanced to the second round by beating the Boston College Eagles 88-66. It was Seminoles largest ACC Tournament win in school history. Devon Bookert led FSU with 15 points, but the biggest lift came from 45 points from their bench.
Florida State Head Coach Leonard Hamilton said “that’s the way we’ve been winning all year long. We’ve been winning games by committee.” FSU just played 11 guys, Malik Beasley got the most minutes with 28.
After a see-saw first half, the Seminoles took control of the game by scoring there first six points of the second half and never looked back. Hamilton says defense and easy baskets led to their second half surge with the help of Eagles Guard (former Florida Gator) Eli Carter and Center Dennis Clifford getting into foul trouble.
Bookert, who came off the bench, explained it well when we said “on any given day we have a lot of potential players that could score a lot of points, so I think anyone can get us over the hump.”
FSU will move on to Virginia Tech, who are riding a six game win streak. The Hokies are coming off of a 77-62 win against No. 11 Miami.
Shootaround at Bishop O'Connell before tonight's game#BeatFSU pic.twitter.com/azkRTT2pme
— Virginia Tech Men's Basketball (@HokiesMBB) March 9, 2016
The Seminoles were a victim of the first game of the Hokies’ winning streak. They will look to “return the favor” to the Hokies. If Florida State defeat Virginia Tech, they will advance to the ACC Tournament quarterfinals for the 10th consecutive year.
Tip off is at 9 p.m. in the Verizon Center, in Washington, D.C. The game will be aired on ESPN2 with Dan Shulman and Jay Bilas providing commentary.