No. 7 Virginia Falls 81-60 at No. 16 Florida State

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – No. 7 Virginia (15-4, 11-2 ACC) fell 81-60 on the road at No. 16 Florida State (12-3, 8-2 ACC) on Monday night at the Donald L. Tucker Center.

Four players finished in double figures for Virginia. Trey Murphy III (Durham, N.C.) led the team with 13 points and five rebounds. Kihei Clark (Woodland Hills, Calif.) and Tomas Woldetensae (Bologna, Italy) each added 12 points and Sam Hauser (Stevens Point, Wis.) had 11.

Virginia shot 46.8 percent from the floor, while Florida State shot 50 percent. FSU led in rebounds (31-25) and fast break points (13-2). M.J. Walker had a game-high 17 points for the Seminoles.

HOW IT HAPPENED

Murphy III opened the game with a three and Hauser hit a three, but Florida State went on a 28-5 run to go up 30-11 with 7:11 to go in the first half. Woldetensae scored the next five points for UVA, but Florida State extended its lead to 42-20. Justin McKoy (Cary, N.C.) hit a three just before the half as UVA trailed 45-25 at the break.

The Cavaliers came out strong in the second half, sparked by 10 points from Clark. UVA opened the second half with a 16-3 run to cut it to seven, 48-41, at the 14:24 mark. FSU came back with a 17-0 run to take its largest lead of the game, 68-43, with 8:27 remaining. UVA cut the lead to 16 on a three by Murphy III but could not get any closer.

FROM TONY BENNETT

On cutting it to seven in second half:

“You always point to the offense, and yes we were aggressive, Kihei (Clark) made some plays, we touch the paint. But our defense really stepped up in terms of we were back, and we didn’t let them in the lane, we guarded the ball, and we were inspired. 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 a sometimes really good defensively, you have to be all the time good in the areas that you have control over. We can’t control if they can make a big time shot or an acrobatic play, but we can control if our defenses set, if we’re active on the ball, if we’re in position and not committing some lapse of judgments. I think that was the part that was we have to look into and say, ‘How good can we be, how good do we want to be.’ That to me was the disappointing part, because we were there for a while and then all of a sudden if it went away that quickly, whether it was a breakdown or not and, again, said you can’t maybe win a game in the first five eight minutes, but you can put yourself in a spot where you can make it dang near impossible to come back and to put ourselves in that kind of hole is frustrating. Hats off to Florida State, they are that good when they are playing like this, and they’re inspired.

NOTES

• The Cavaliers suffered their largest ACC loss since losing 65-41 at North Carolina on Feb. 18, 2017
• FSU’s 24-game ACC home winning streak is the second longest in league history
• FSU’s 45 first-half points were most allowed by UVA in opening half since 48 at Tennessee (12/30/13)
• Clark scored all 12 of his points in the second half
• Hauser has reached double figures in 17 games
• Murphy has reached double figures in 13 games
• Huff (2 blocks) recorded his 14th multi-block game (41st career)
• Kody Stattmann returned to action after missing 15 games with a non-COVID 19 cardiac issue

UP NEXT

Virginia remains on the road, traveling to Duke on Saturday, Feb. 20 for an 8 p.m. tip at Cameron Indoor Stadium. The game will be broadcast on ESPN.