It was not a thing of beauty on Saturday afternoon at the Donald L. Tucker Center, but No. 25 Florida State did enough to down Georgia Tech and earn a third straight victory, 59-49.
The Seminoles (16-5, 4-4 ACC) had arguably their best defensive performance of the season, holding Georgia Tech to 28 percent shooting and just 3-for-21 from beyond the 3-point arc. The 49 points is the fewest allowed by FSU in any game this season.
Georgia Tech (11-11, 3-6 ACC) actually started strong, racing to a 14-8 lead before gaining it again with five straight points with more than eight minutes remaining in the first half to go up 19-16. The Yellow Jackets would score just 30 points over the final 28 minutes and change.
FSU used a 17-8 run to take a 33-27 lead into the locker room. From there on out, six would be the closest that the Yellow Jackets would get although Evan Cole had a 3-pointer that would have cut the lead to five overturned with 5:10 remaining.
FSU managed to shoot just 35 percent from the field and 4-for-16 from deep, but did get to the free throw line 30 times, which included 23 makes. Mfiondu Kabengele and Terance Mann each scored 12 points. Christ Koumadje added six points, eight rebounds and two blocks. Kabengele also recorded a pair of blocks.
Senior Abdoulaye Gueye was the lone bright spot for Georgia Tech, finishing with 15 points on 6-for-7 shooting and seven rebounds. The rest of the team combined to go 11-for-53 from the field. Freshman Michael Devoe hit double-digits with 10 points and was responsible for two of the three Georgia Tech makes from distance. Leading scorer Jose Alvarado was held scoreless, missing all 10 of his shot attempts before fouling out.
Well-rested coming into Saturday, Florida State will now make a long trip to Upstate New York to face Syracuse on Tuesday. Georgia Tech returns home to host Clemson on Wednesday.
Mike Ferguson is the editor of The Daily Nole. Follow Mike on Twitter @MikeWFerguson
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