TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Trevor Cooney lay flat on his back out of bounds after Boris Bojanovsky annihilated his layup attempt into the stands. The 7-foot-3 Florida State big man sent Cooney to the floor and his arms extended before teammates pulled him up.

Minutes later, Cooney attempted a crossover at the top of the key but slipped and fell on his stomach. A foul called on FSU bailed him out and this time, Cooney pushed himself up, sweating as Syracuse may now do the same about its NCAA Tournament status after its fourth loss in five games.

The fifth-year senior struggled again on Saturday, shooting below 30 percent from the field for the fourth consecutive game. He went 4-of-16 from the field and 2-for-10 from 3, chipping in a somewhat misleading 12 points in Syracuse’s (19-12, 9-9 Atlantic Coast) 78-73 loss to Florida State (18-12, 8-10) at the Donald Tucker Civic Center on Saturday.

“I’m tired of that same old story,” Boeheim said after being asked about Cooney’s struggles. “He’s our best player in that position, we want him to shoot, we want him to take shots.”

But those shots haven’t been falling and Syracuse hasn’t been winning. Against Pittsburgh he went 1-for-9 from the field. Against North Carolina State, albeit a Syracuse win, Cooney shot 1-of-8. Then a combined 7-for-27 mark in the last two games capped off a less than impressive finish to his final regular season.

He’s getting good looks, he says, and that’s what he’s said all season. But five 3-pointers combined in the last four games leaves a blemish on the mercurial shooting guard heading into the home stretch of his career.

“I thought he got to the basket better,” Boeheim said, “but we want him to take those shots.”

Cooney did have his share of standout plays on Saturday – a crafty layup in the first half, a dive after a loose ball that he saved from going out of bounds and a 3 to tie the game at 55 in the second half.

But it was arguably the most important shot of the day that turned out like most of the rest. With 16 seconds left and SU trailing by three, it had a chance to completely nullify what was a 10-point deficit just two minutes prior.

Cooney fired and the ball sailed toward the rim.

“I was just looking like, golly, you know it’s in the air,” FSU guard Dwayne Bacon said, “and it didn’t go in and we got the rebound.

“He’s a great shooter, good player and those kind of players usually when they have that type of moment at the end I mean yeah you think it’s going in.”

But as Terance Mann corralled the ball and led Xavier Rathan-Mayes to the game-sealing layup, Cooney stayed near the spot where he had just missed from. Syracuse repeatedly punched back down the stretch but it had no blows left.

Cooney’s was the last meaningful one, but it hit off the front of the rim to no avail.

“I thought it was a good look,” Cooney said, “yeah, I thought it was good.”

Published on March 5, 2016 at 8:09 pm

Contact Matt: [email protected] | @matt_schneidman