FSU men's basketball blows 17 point lead, falls to Georgia in ACC/SEC Challenge
The demons that plagued Florida State men's basketball during the 2022-23 season reappeared Wednesday night.
In an offensive struggle, Georgia defeated the Seminoles 68-66 on a buzzer-beater by Justin Hill in the ACC/SEC Challenge in front of 6,688 fans at the Donald L. Tucker Civic Center.
FSU (4-2) led by as many as 17 points with 7:53 left following a pair of 3-pointers by Darin Green Jr. But the Seminoles struggled from the field and with turnovers down the stretch.
The Bulldogs (4-3) closed the game out on a 24-5 run to win the contest.
"You have to give George a lot of credit. When you are down 17 with seven minutes to go in most games, it's very difficult to come back from those types of deficits," FSU head coach Leonard Hamilton said. "And you got to give them credit for staying focused on who they were.
"And obviously, we fell apart during that stretch, making poor decisions, not meeting the ball, trying to make homerun plays. That's it. This says a lot about the progress we have to make in order for us to be a successful basketball team."
Hill finished with 13 points and three assists, while Silas Demary Jr. added 15 points and Jabri Abdur-Rahim and RJ Melendez each had 12 points.
The Bulldogs led for just 2:36 all game, with the Seminoles leading for 35:54.
Green led FSU with 21 points, becoming the first 20-point scorer on the season for the Seminoles. He had a sequence where he hit back-to-back 3-pointers to push the FSU lead to 17 with under 8 minutes remaining.
De'Ante Green added 14 points and nine rebounds, though he split a pair of free throws with 27.9 seconds remaining to tie the game but could not give FSU the lead. Baba Miller had nine points and five rebounds but fouled out in 23 minutes of play.
Jaylan Gainey made his season and FSU debut, playing three minutes off the bench. He missed the entire 2022-23 season after sustaining a knee injury.
Darin Green Jr. was double-teamed each time he touched the ball following the two 3-point stretch. Leading scorer Jamir Watkins had just seven points on 2-of-10 shooting, four turnovers and also fouled out in 24 minutes. Jalen Warley, who had 19 against Colorado last time out, was 0-of-7 from the field and missed two key free throws down the stretch.
"Now, the main thing was we just got to learn from this week, we can have a pity party, all we want to and we have about 25 more games to play," Hamilton said. "You're capable of winning them and you capable of losing them. So we have to grow from this and mature from it and hopefully gather the information to help us mature to not allow this to happen to us again.
"We had a tough road to go. We still trying to find ourselves. I mean, I told you guys over and over over, that I'm still not comfortable with where we are, I'm still trying to figure out how to utilize my rotation. I'm still trying to gather to get to the point where we're consistent enough."
Center Russel Tchewa had zero points and six rebounds in 18 minutes. He was ejected
This was the first meeting between the two teams since the 1981-82 season when Georgia defeated FSU 70-67 in Tallahassee. The Seminoles now lead the all-time series 19-11.
Former UGA and FSU head coach Hugh Durham, 86 and his wife Malinda, were in attendance and honored at halftime. Durham posted a 634-430 at FSU, Georgia and Jacksonville (1997-2005).
Georgia head coach Mike White is now 2-6 all-time against the Seminoles but has won his last two matchups against FSU. He coached the Gators from 2015-22, winning his final matchup against FSU 71-55 on Nov. 14, 2021, at the O'Connell Center in Gainesville.
FSU and North Carolina open ACC play Saturday at the Dean Smith Center
The Seminoles take on No. 17 UNC to begin ACC play at 2 p.m. Saturday at the Dean Smith Center in Chapel Hill, North Carolina.
Reach Ehsan Kassim at ekassim@gannett.com or follow him on Twitter at @Ehsan_Kassim. You can also follow our coverage on Facebook (NoleSports), Instagram (tlhnolesports) and YouTube channel (NoleSportsTD).
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This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: FSU men's basketball falls to Georgia on game-winner by Justin Hill
