TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Xavier Rathan-Mayes streaked toward the basket with only Malachi Richardson lightly trailing behind. He softly laid in the final dagger in Syracuse’s coffin, one the Orange had been able to stave off despite facing an 11-point second-half hole.

But the Seminoles (18-12, 8-10 Atlantic Coast) had an answer for every Syracuse (19-12, 9-9) spurt in a 78-73 FSU win on Saturday afternoon at the Donald Tucker Civic Center. The loss denied Syracuse double-digit wins, and leaves the ACC tournament as Syracuse’s only chance to make a lasting impression on the NCAA Tournament committee.

The Seminoles and Orange were scoreless almost three minutes in and started a combined 0-for-12 from the field. Two fans dressed in bacon costumes for Florida State’s Dwayne Bacon had a shooting contest during a first-half timeout, and it wasn’t much worse than the actual game.

Syracuse turned the ball over 11 times in the first half, but so too did Florida State, giving the sloppy Orange offense a lifeline to match FSU’s hectic pace in transition. After stumbling through its first several fastbreaks, Tyler Roberson floated a pass to a streaking Michael Gbinije, who found Malachi Richardson for a two-handed flush to cut FSU’s lead to one.

And after a start where the word sloppy would be an understatement, the Orange came alive from the field. Last time SU played Florida State, the Orange shot its highest percentage (62.4) in almost five years. By half, courtesy of a balanced offensive charge led by Tyler Lydon, Syracuse led 35-31 while boasting a 56 percent clip from the field.

In a vastly cleaner start to the second half, Malik Beasley and Richardson traded long balls, but then the FSU freshman hit two more as the Seminoles grabbed their own cushion. A Gbinije poster dunk in transition on the 7-foot-3 Bojanovsky preceded a Richardson slam to resuscitate Syracuse. The teams combined for 21 more points before the first media timeout of the second half than the first.

When Devon Bookert hit a 3 from the corner to cap off a 7-0 FSU run and force a Jim Boeheim timeout, Lydon immediately turned and jogged to the bench. Syracuse had no choice but to stop the bleeding. It had answered each FSU spurt in the first half, but now faced its biggest deficit as the crowd rose to its feet and FSU bounced into its huddle while Syracuse lagged into its own.

But those answers, the ones that Syracuse did have in the opening 20 minutes, came again. First via a Gbinije 3. Then a Richardson transition finger roll. And a Cooney swish from beyond the arc to tie the game at 55. The three plays revitalized a team that was about to have to dig itself out of another hole after another 6-0 FSU run.

This time, it didn’t.

Cooney lay flat on his back after being rejected by Bojanovsky in transition. Then he slipped while attempting a crossover and was bailed out by a foul call. He pressed himself up, Syracuse’s bid for 10 ACC wins also slipping away.

The Orange made a furious charge at the end, cutting its deficit to two, but Florida State provided the answers SU couldn’t.

Published on March 5, 2016 at 4:25 pm

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