Darin Green Jr. celebrated his Senior Night with 26 points to lead Florida State to an 83-75 victory over Miami in an Atlantic Coast Conference matchup of Sunshine State rivals Saturday afternoon in Tallahassee, Fla.
Green matched his career high in 3-pointers with an 8-of-15 performance from long distance as the Seminoles (16-15, 10-10 ACC) won for the 12th time in the last 13 meetings with the Hurricanes (15-16, 6-14).
Junior Jamir Watkins notched his sixth career double-double with 16 points and 11 rebounds and Jalen Warley with 13 points and Cameron Corhen with 10 also were in double figures for the Seminoles.
The loss extended Miami’s losing streak to nine games heading into the conference tournament that begins Tuesday in Washington, D.C. The Hurricanes will be the event’s 14th seed, the Seminoles will be No. 9.
Bensley Joseph led Miami with 17 points and Norchad Omier posted his 67th career double-double, scoring 16 points and matching his season high with 17 rebounds. Matthew Cleveland, who transferred to Miami from Florida State, matched Omier with 16 points. Wooga Poplar added 12 for the Hurricanes, who were without injured starting guard Nijel Pack (knee).
After a sloppy first half, the Hurricanes went over nine minutes without a turnover in the second and went on an 8-0 run to take a 56-53 lead before the Seminoles responded with a 6-0 spurt for a 59-56 cushion with 8:50 remaining.
Just over two minutes later, the Seminoles had their biggest lead of the game up to that point with Green’s career-high tying eighth 3-pointer putting them up 68-60 and Miami was able to get no closer than six points after that.
Florida State’s biggest lead was 79-70 with 1:25 remaining.
The two teams went back and forth in the early stages of the first half, exchanging the lead eight times before a 7-0 run put the Seminoles up 33-27 with 2:18 left.
The Hurricanes made 11 turnovers in the period but poor shooting (34.9 percent) kept the Seminoles from taking advantage of them and Miami actually had a 12-8 scoring advantage in points off turnovers the first half.
Baskets by Primo Spears and Cameron Corhen in the final minute gave the ‘Noles a 37-32 lead at the break.
–Field Level Media