Florida State guard Deividas Dulkys (No. 4) was the hero Saturday against North Carolina. On Tuesday, Bernard James (No. 5) muscled the Seminoles past Maryland for a physical, 84-70 win. The Seminoles now have three straight ACC wins ahead of Saturday's contest at Duke. (Phil Sears/USPresswire)
Last night’s men’s basketball game between Florida State and Maryland ended rather late, so many of you may have missed the final score and the final Orlando Sentinel game story.
Well, have no fear, you can go right here to access all of that information.
Indeed, the 84-70 win over the Terrapins was FSU’s third consecutive and showed that there was no letdown to be experienced coming off Saturday’s big 33-point bashing of then-No. 3 North Carolina inside the Donald L. Tucker Center. For much of the season, that has been one of the Seminoles’ biggest problems: following up a key win with a devastating loss. (Look no further than the Auburn beatdown that preempted the slaughter by Clemson a few days later).
Since losing on the road to Clemson in their ACC opener, though, the Seminoles have been rolling.
They knocked off Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Va. They toppled the Tar Heels. They sacked the Terrapins.
After the game, FSU coach Leonard Hamilton gave the much expected speech about still having “a way to go,” and not being a “well-oiled machine” just yet. But the wins, he had to admit, have felt good for now.
The window to enjoy Tuesday night’s romp will have to be brief, though, he said. With another tall task looming before them Saturday afternoon in Durham, N.C., the Seminoles are hoping to add another upset to their early-conference season resume when they travel to Duke. Before the ACC schedule began, this five-game stretch, from Clemson to Duke, was deemed a true gauntlet that contained few opportunities for wins in it. The Seminoles were hopeful they could escape it with three or four wins. They’re hopeful to make it four.
In order to earn a key road victory on the Blue Devils’ famous home court, they will need to continue to do what they’ve been doing the past few games. Namely, that’s playing the suffocating, self-proclaimed “junkyard dawg” defense that Hamilton has made famous in Tallahassee, and churning out similar offensive production to what they’ve had the last three games.
“The offense is clicking right now,” guard Luke Loucks said. “We need it to keep clicking, and we’ve got to keep playing really good defense. I think we let up in giving them some easy drives to the basket (Tuesday night). If we let Duke do that we’re not going to have a chance. We need to really lock down on defense and hopefully the offense will keep coming.
“We just can’t get ahead of ourselves.”
Indeed, in the post-game interview area Tuesday, the Seminoles were quick to point to the long road they still have ahead of them. With the lions’ share of their conference schedule still remaining, they were happy with the third straight win, but were already looking forward, toward the future.
“No one’s gone to the NCAA Tournament by winning three games in the ACC,” Hamilton said. “We dug a little hole for ourselves, and we’re not back up to the top looking up out of the hole yet. We’ve still got a ways to go to put ourselves back in a right direction.”
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One way the Seminoles can continue to put themselves in the right direction is to continue feeding senior forward Bernard James the ball.
Offensively, James was physical and dominating in the low post on the Terrapins. He threw down four dunks, three of which came after misses or blocks. His first dunk opened the game’s scoring when he had a previous attempt blocked.
That block was the worst thing that could have happened for Maryland.
“I just had my mind set on going back up and finishing the play,” James said.
He did, throwing down a ferocious two-handed slam and letting out a yell that got the mostly full Tucker Center arena to its feet early.
From there, James’ play on the offensive end translated to the defensive end where he finished with three steals and two blocks. One of the blocks was a complete first-half stuff. The Maryland player who was blocked was driving into the lane and before he neared the base line, he offered a head fake. James went for it. But even while airborne off the head fake, James was able to keep his body in control just enough to where he threw an arm out as soon as the Terrapin went back up, letting go of the layup attempt.
The ball was no more than six inches out of his hand before James swatted it right back down.
That play, coupled with a steal near the top of Maryland’s key and the fastbreak dunk finish that resulted from it, were just the types of energy plays the Seminoles have been desperate to see. On Tuesday, they were glad to have James providing it.
“For him to come out like that from the jump was really big,” sophomore guard Ian Miller said. “He’s a big key to our team. Him bringing energy like that sparks the rest of us because he’s our leader. You’re going to follow your leader. And (Tuesday night), he showed he was our leader.”
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Miller showed Tuesday night why his hot hand was desperately needed in the early part of the year. After being deemed ineligible for most of the non-conference schedule, Miller has played off the bench in each game for the past month. Already, he’s average double figures in scoring. Tuesday was no different.
Against the Terrapins, Miller notched a career-high 18. He dropped a pair of timely 3s and helped add to the offensive success the Seminoles had in the rout.
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About the only thing Hamilton wasn’t pleased about during the win was the way the Seminoles allowed the Terrapins to keep the game close in the first half and initial minutes of the second half. Maryland was driving hard into the lanes and FSU was giving it the space to do that.
“We were pushing up on them too far away from the basket, and that allowed them to have wider driving lanes,” Hamilton said of his early-game defense. “That put us in a tough situation because we were jamming them so far away from the basket, and once our big guys rotated over, they were handing it off and going up on the glass and got a couple of put-backs. We were so anxious and being so aggressive that we were overly aggressive.”
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The game against Duke tips off at 4 p.m. Saturday from Cameron Indoor Stadium.