FSU men's basketball comeback falls short vs. Virginia, drop 4th game in last 6 | Takeaways
Florida State men's basketball's recent skid continued Saturday night in an ACC loss to Virginia, despite a late comeback effort.
The Cavaliers defeated the Seminoles 80-76 in front of 8,525 fans at the Donald L. Tucker Civic Center to hand FSU (13-10, 7-5) its fourth loss in six games, following a five-game winning streak to begin the year.
The Cavaliers (19-5, 10-3) pushed their largest lead of the contest at 69-57 with 3:53 left but the Seminoles clawed back to cut the lead to just two points when Darin Green Jr. hit a layup and finished the and-1 opportunity.
Following a pair of free throws from Isaac McKneely, to push the lead back to four, Tom House was fouled on a 3-pointer.
House missed the second and then intentionally missed the third with the Seminoles down three to attempt to get an offensive rebound with 4.8 seconds left.
McKneely, however, got the rebound and was fouled and put the game away with a free throw.
For McKneely, he scored a season-high 29 points, shooting 5-of-7 from 3-point range and 8 of 12 from the field. Reece Beekman added 21 points and four assists for UVA and Jacob Groves had 10 points.
Jamir Watkins led the Seminoles with 21 points, scoring 11 on free throws. He fouled out with 1:11 left. It was Watkins' second 20-point performance of the season.
Chandler Jackson scored his career-high with 17 points on 7-of-8 shooting, while Baba Miller and Cam Cohren each added eight points. Jackson's previous high was 14 points.\
"I thought that [Virginia had the right chemistry, I thought they had the right gameplan," FSU head coach Leonard Hamilton said of Virginia postgame.
"They were extremely patient on the offensive end."
The Cavaliers take a one-game lead in the all-time series, which was tied at 28-28 heading into the contest.
Here are our three takeaways from the Seminoles' fourth loss in six games.
FSU men's basketball running out of opportunities
FSU faced two 12-point deficits and one 11-point deficit in the second half. Both times the team came storming back and got within a basket of tying the contest.
But in a game the Seminoles led just once (at 2-0), Hamilton said he appreciated the fight he saw from his team, but the team is starting to run out of chances.
FSU entered the night ranked 93rd in Net Rankings, putting them well out of the picture for the NCAA Tournament and even the NIT.
With two bad losses to Lipscomb (Quad-4 loss) and Lousiville (Quad 3), the Seminoles face an uphill battle for a tournament bid, even with three Quad-1 games remaining on the schedule.
"We have fewer games to play now, so we don't have many more opportunities," Hamilton said. "There's not much room for error. As we go on the road, we have to learn from this game."
3-point disconnect
The Seminoles made just 2 of 16 3-point attempts (13%), while the Cavaliers shot 10-of-18 (56%) from 3-point range, including 6 of 8 (75%) in the second half.
FSU shot 51.1% from the field, buoyed by a staggering 61% shooting from 2-point range.
It also shot 26-of-33 (78%) from the free throw line but missed two key shots in the final seconds, while UVA shot 18 of 24 from the charity stripe.
On most nights against Virginia - which entered the game allowing the fewest points per game in the conference at 56.9 points per game - 76 points is enough to win.
The difference in the game easily comes down to 3-pointers.
"We had the same high percentage of 3-point attempts, but we missed ours and they made theirs," Hamilton said. "From a statistical standpoint, that made the difference in the game.
Darin Green Jr. was held without a 3-pointer for just the second time this season. He also failed to hit one against rival Florida in November.
Green finished with five points, including an and-one opportunity to cut the lead to two late in the contest.
But he shot 2-of-9 from the field and missed all six 3-point attempts.
"He's one of the better shooters in the nation," Hamilton said. "Tonight was not his night."
Career-night for Chandler Jackson
It's been an up-and-down season for Jackson. Before the season, he was suspended from team activities by Hamilton for unspecified reasons.
He has played sporadic minutes and was held out of the road contests at Louisville and Boston College.
But Jackson stepped up when the only other player scoring was Watkins. Jackson scored 15 points in the second half, which alone beat his previous career high of 14 points against Georgia Tech on Jan. 3.
His 21 minutes also represented a season-high for the sophomore from Memphis.
"Chandler's playing to his skillset," Hamilton said. "He sees the game through another set of eyes. ... Those gaps to him now are opening up to him because he's exploding into them."
Up next:
Florida State hits the road for a contest against Virginia Tech Blacksburg, Virginia at 9 p.m. Tuesday. The Seminoles host No. 9 Duke at 2 p.m. Feb. 17 at the Tuck.
Reach Ehsan Kassim at ekassim@gannett.com or follow him on Twitter at @Ehsan_Kassim. You can also follow our coverage on Facebook (NoleSports), Instagram (tlhnolesports) and YouTube channel (NoleSportsTD).
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This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: Isaac McKneely leads Virginia to victory over FSU men's basketball
