Wahoos Embarrassed By Florida State in Matchup of ACC’s Best Teams

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Vegas oddsmakers had the Virginia-Florida State game projected as a near-pick ’em, with the Seminoles a mere two-point favorite at home. As it turned out, they underestimated how locked in FSU was, and how out of sorts the Wahoos were. Florida State embarrassed Virginia on Monday night in Tallahassee, winning easily 81-60. Save for a brief run by UVA early in the second half where they cut FSU’s lead to seven, the game was never in question.

Florida State jumped all over Virginia in the first half on Monday, using a 14-0 run to take a daunting 45-25 lead into halftime. According to Virginia Sports, the Wahoos hadn’t allowed that many points in the first half since December 30, 2013, against Tennessee when the Vols scored 48 in the first 20 minutes.

To start the second half, Kihei Clark led a brief charge to bring the Hoos within striking distance. Across the first five minutes plus, Virginia went on a 16-3 run to bring the score to 48-41. Sadly, the Seminoles quickly doused Virginia’s fire with a 20-2 run of their own to bring the score to 68-43. The closest Virginia would get from that point forward was within 16 points.

If you’re familiar with Virginia and have watched them frequently during the Tony Bennett era, you know what can happen when the opposition can’t miss from deep. The most famous example is the infamous UMBC game from the 2018 NCAA Tournament. To make a long story short, that’s precisely what happened on Monday night at the Tucker Center. Florida State shot an incredible 13-of-24 from beyond the arc (54.2 percent) and 50 percent overall.

Of course, the Seminoles, college basketball’s longest team, also suffocated the Hoos offensively and won the turnover battle 13 to 5. Virginia’s two leading scorers, Jay Huff and Sam Hauser, were totally shut down; they combined for just 15 points on 5-of-13 shooting and just seven rebounds. Coming into the game, the pair was averaging 28.5 points and 13.8 rebounds per game.

“Florida State was really good tonight,” Tony Bennett said after the game. “If you want a chance to beat a team of this caliber, or that is playing at this level in this setting, you can’t be sometimes really good defensively. You’ve got to be all the time good in the areas that you have control over.”

The setting was a bit different than what Virginia has come to know this season. There were nearly 3,000 fans at Monday’s game, at least 1,000 more than any of their other road games during this year’s COVID-affected season. By comparison, Virginia home games allow for 250 people in the stands.

Four players scored in double figures for Virginia on Monday: Trey Murphy III (13), Tomas Woldetensae (12), Clark (12), and Hauser (11).

Virginia fell to 15-4 overall and 11-2 in conference play. Their only two ACC losses have come on the road (at Virginia Tech; at Florida State). Despite the loss, UVA only fell one spot in the KenPom rankings (No. 9 to No. 10) and still remains the ACC’s highest-ranked team. Florida State, however, used the big win to shoot up to No. 13 overall.

The Wahoos will now have plenty of time to prepare for their next game on Saturday at Duke. The game is set for an 8:00 p.m. ET start on ESPN. Duke, it should be noted, had some big news of their own on Monday as Jalen Johnson, one of their biggest freshman recruits, opted out of the season.