Check below for game stories from all the ACC basketball action on Tuesday. While we’re in non-conference play, stories will be listed in alphabetical order, by which ACC team is involved.
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Florida State cruises over Charlotte 106-62
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) – Aaron Thomas scored a career-high 26 points as Florida State cruised to a 106-62 victory against Charlotte.
The last time Florida State scored 100 points was a 108-73 win against Campbell in Dec. 22, 2005.
Shawn Lester led the 49ers (7-3) with 16 points as Pierria Henry chipped in 13 and Willie Clayton finished with 11 points. Both Henry and Clayton were ejected in the second half; Henry for two technical fouls after a power dunk over Michael Ojo and Clayton for a flagrant-2 foul.
The Seminoles had six players score double-figures, including 18 points in 18 minutes by Ian Miller.
The win was the second in a row for the Seminoles after losing 3-of-4 on a road trip that included losses to Michigan, No. 16 Florida and Minnesota.
The Seminoles (7-3) play UMass in the Orange Bowl Classic in Sunrise, Fla. on Saturday as the 49ers host USC.
“We had a tremendous amount of respect for Charlotte’s team,” Florida State coach Leonard Hamilton said. “We had to rise to the occasion.
“Tonight our guys played exceptionally well. . This team brought the best out of us tonight.”
The Seminoles, arguably, played their most complete game of the season. They dominated Charlotte from the opening tip by jumping out to a 22-5 lead with 11:58 left in the first half. A 3-0 start accounted for the 49ers’ only lead of the game.
Florida State was aggressive in transition with 10 points during that early run, punctuated by a Thomas break-away dunk off a full-length pass from Okaro White, who scored 14 and grabbed 11 rebounds for his third double-double of the season. Charlotte was sloppy with the ball and committed 19 turnovers with many leading to transition basketball. Florida State scored 14 points off the fast break while Charlotte managed just two.
The long-ball fell as the Seminoles shot 9-for-22 from behind the arc, including back-to-back triples from White and Montay Brandon for Florida State’s first points of the game. The nine 3-point baskets were the season-high.
The rebounding may have been most the most surprising. The 49ers featured the No. 10 rebounder in the NCAA in Willie Clayton, but Charlotte was outrebounded by 15 in the first half. Florida State finished the game with a 45-33 edge.
The 49ers were never in contention after the Seminoles’ initial push. They shot 35 percent from the field and were 1-for-7 from behind the arc in the second half while trying to rally. Frustrations rose in the second half as Henry picked up two technical fouls after dunking on Florida State 7-foot-3 center Michael Ojo. He picked up the first technical trash talking Ojo, then he wouldn’t stop as officials stepped in.
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Cincinnati beats Pittsburgh 44-43
NEW YORK (AP) – It was impossible not to think of the Big East when Cincinnati and Pittsburgh, two former members of the conference, met in the Jimmy V Classic at Madison Square Garden on Tuesday night.
The teams didn’t have to stage an old-fashioned defensive battle with plenty of missed shots and key rebounds.
But they did.
Titus Rubles’ rebound basket with 4.2 seconds to play gave Cincinnati a 44-43 victory over previously unbeaten Pittsburgh.
It was appropriate the winning points came on a missed shot in a game where neither team shot 38 percent from the field.
“I thought it was beautiful,” Cincinnati coach Mick Cronin said when somebody brought up the word ugly to describe the game.
“I don’t know what game you were watching,” said Justin Jackson, who led the Bearcats with 12 points.
The Bearcats (8-2) had lost two straight, the last of which was a 64-47 loss to crosstown rival Xavier on Saturday night.
“You’ve got to be able to win these kind of games,” Cronin said. “Our guys were so upset at what happened Saturday night we had guys who couldn’t eat. I was a psychiatrist more than a coach the last few days.”
Most of Jackson’s points came on his seven offensive rebounds. He had nine rebounds total and the Bearcats finished with a 35-27 advantage on the boards, 16-8 on the offensive end.
“We came trying to outrebound them and got outrebounded,” Pittsburgh coach Jamie Dixon said. “We didn’t play well the whole game but we fought back to get the lead and then didn’t do things right when we got there. We knew we had some work to do but I thought our offense was better than that. We didn’t handle their physicality at all.”
Sean Kilpatrick, Cincinnati’s leading scorer at 19.3 points per game, finished with nine on 4-of-13 shooting including going 1 of 8 from 3-point range.
Talib Zanna had 12 points for the Panthers (10-1), one of 14 Division I teams to start the day without a loss, while Lamar Patterson added 11.
Pittsburgh did not have a field goal for a 13:43 stretch in the second half, a drought that ended with a drive by Cameron Wright with 1:07 left that gave the Panthers a 43-42 lead. Patterson missed two free throws with 21 seconds left. Cincinnati worked the clock down and Kilpatrick missed a drive but Rubles got the rebound and scored. He had six points and two rebounds.
Wright took a running jumper from just inside midcourt as the buzzer sounded.
“I feel like I lost the game for us,” Patterson said.
Wright jumped to his defense.
“You don’t lose a game on one possession or two missed free throws,” Wright said, “We just didn’t go out there and do what we were supposed to do.”
The Bearcats shot 37.7 percent from the field (20 of 53) and were 3 of 13 on 3s (23.1 percent). They entered the game scoring 73.4 points per game on 43.4 shooting overall and 35.2 percent from 3-point range.
The Panthers came in averaging 82.6 points on 49.5 shooting overall and 34.6 percent on 3s. They were 11 of 35 from the field (31.4 percent) and they were 2 of 13 from 3-point range (15.4 percent).
The 11 field goals were the fewest in a game for the Panthers in coach Jamie Dixon’s 11 seasons and the second-fewest in school history.
These schools were in the Big East together for eight years – 2005-13 – and Pittsburgh had an 8-3 record in those meetings. The Bearcats, who are in the American Athletic Conference, now have a 10-9 lead in the overall series. Pittsburgh, which is now in the Atlantic Coast Conference, joined the Big East in 1982.
Kilpatrick, a native of nearby Yonkers, and fellow senior Jackson were sentimental about the game.
“Me and Justin were talking in our room that this was going to be our last time in the Garden,” Kilpatrick said. “It is just an amazing feeling to win in the Garden.”
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Wake Forest rolls past St. Bonaventure 77-62
WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. (AP) – Codi Miller-McIntyre scored 20 points and Wake Forest shook off the rust from a 10-day layoff to beat St. Bonaventure 77-62 on Tuesday night.
Devin Thomas added 18 points and Travis McKie 16 for the Demon Deacons (9-2), who rallied from an eight-point halftime deficit to win their third straight game.
After shooting less than 40 percent from the field in the first 20 minutes, Wake Forest made 18 of 29 (62.1 percent) and outrebounded the Bonnies (7-4) 22-11 in the second half to win by double digits for the eighth time this season.
Andell Cumberbatch scored 19 points for St. Bonaventure (7-4), which led by as many as 11 points in the first half. But the Bonnies shot just 38.5 percent from the field and made only 4 of 11 free throws in the second half.
St. Bonaventure led 36-28 at the half, but the Demon Deacons rallied to take a 50-49 lead on Miller-McIntyre’s layup with 11:35 left.
After Cumberbatch hit a layup 37 seconds later to put the Bonnies back on top, Thomas hit a layup and Coron Williams nailed back-to-back 3-pointers to kick off a 25-7 Wake Forest run.
Miller-McIntyre ended the run with a layup with 1:24 remaining, giving the Demon Deacons a 75-57 lead, their biggest of the game.
Yet Wake Forest – whose last game was an 11-point overtime win over Richmond on Dec. 7 – showed the effects of the layoff in the first half. The Demon Deacons shot 35.7 percent from the field (10 of 28), and turned the ball over nine times.
By comparison, St. Bonaventure – which had throttled Iona 102-89 three days earlier – shot 40.5 percent (15 of 37), including 3 of 9 on 3-pointers, and used Wake Forest’s ball control problems to take an 11-2 advantage in points off turnovers.
Still, the Demon Deacons managed to lead early, going up 8-6 on Arnaud William Adala Moto’s layup with 14:43 left. But the Bonnies responded with a 10-point run, pulling ahead 16-8 on Youssou Ndoye’s three-point play with 11:04 remaining.
Wake Forest cut St. Bonaventure’s lead to three points, 20-17, on McKie’s layup with 8:16 left. But the Bonnies went on another run, outscoring the Demon Deacons 12-4 over the next five minutes.
Cumberbatch’s 3-pointer from the corner ended the run and gave St. Bonaventure a 32-21 lead with 2:55 remaining, its biggest lead of the first half.
Wake Forest would pull no closer than eight points the rest of the half, with Miller-McIntyre’s layup with 44 seconds left sending the Bonnies out at the break ahead 36-28.