FSU goes cold in Columbus

Florida State hit the road for the ACC - Big Ten Challenge Monday night and failed to help their conference win the event for the 11th consecutive year.

Before the game Leonard Hamilton said his Florida State team could not afford to get down to Ohio State by 17 points like the Seminoles did against Marquette on Sunday night in the Old Spice Classic final.

Before the game Leonard Hamilton said his Florida State team could not afford to get down to Ohio State by 17 points like the Seminoles did against Marquette on Sunday night in the Old Spice Classic final.

In that game FSU was able to come back and win the game.

But when the ‘Noles were down by 22 with roughly nine minutes to play in the game, it was pretty clear that a repeat of Sunday night was not going to happen as FSU lost 77-64 to the Buckeyes.

It was a similar scenario as FSU turned the ball over too much in the first half (12) and could not buy a three point basket going 0 for 5 (just 2 of 16 overall).

Meanwhile the Buckeyes connected on 7 of 16 (12 of 28 for the game). Jon Diebler led the first half assault with five three pointers to give OSU a 31-20 halftime margin.

FSU and OSU made the exact same number of baskets and relatively close at the free throw line. Unfortunately for the ‘Noles the disparity at the arc was the difference in the game.

“We could not find one person to consistently score for us”, Hamilton commented. “We held Ohio State to 32% in the first half on the road and that should put you in a position to have a chance. But we didn’t do the simple things like catching and passing.”

It didn’t improve much in the second half as Ohio State connected on four straight threes with a couple of free throws as well in a 12-2 run that increased the lead to 52-32.

An offensive put back gave the Bucks their largest lead of the game at 54-32.

FSU did chip away at the lead slightly behind Michael Snaer’s 10 points all scored in the last 8:06 of the game. But as Hamilton said afterwards FSU was beaten by a more experienced team giving credit to the Buckeye defense. “Ohio State sprinted to our shooters and contested shots.”

Solomon Alabi led the ‘Noles with a career high 21 points. Derwin Kitchen finished with 12.

Even though FSU managed to score 44 points in the paint Hamilton was not especially pleased with how his team got the ball into the lane.

“We are not consistently getting the ball inside”, Hamilton said. “Our big men are getting the ball too far away from the basket. To do that we need to move the ball, reverse it. We are just trying to score too quickly.”

Evan Turner led all scorers with 25 points. Diebler finished with 22 and Jeremie Simmons added 14.

Despite the loss Hamilton was still upbeat about his team’s future.

“Before too long this team will be dangerous”, he said. This run of six games away from home will help us later in the season versus playing an easier schedule now.”

With the loss Florida State falls to 6-2 on the season and will host Isaiah Thomas’ Florida International team on Sunday in Tallahassee. Tip off is at 1:00.

The game was the final game in the ACC/Big Ten Challenge. For the first time in eleven tries the Big Ten won the Challenge by a margin of 6-5.It came down to FSU having to pull it out for the ACC after Duke had lost earlier to Wisconsin. But the outcome was pretty much decided by then.