Written by Nick Davis
Florida State came into the game having won 24 straight home games against non-conference teams. They left with a 25th straight home win after surviving a back and forth game. Trent Forest hit the game-winning shot with just over 5 seconds left to give the Seminoles the 73-72 lead.
The game started slowly with multiple empty possessions by both teams After nearly 3 minutes the first points were scored when Matt Harmms made 2 of 3 free throws for the Boilermakers. Florida State’s P.J. Savoy Jr. immediately came back with a four-point play and the tone was set for a back and forth contest. Early on Purdue jumped out to a 10-5 lead after Ryan Cline hit two straight three-pointers. Not to be overmatched the Seminoles at one point went on an 11-0 run to go up by 5.
The Boilermakers who averaged 12 turnovers coming into the contest, they had 6 in the first seven minutes. The nation’s second-leading scorer Carson Edwards ripped off 5 straight points to tie the game at 17. Then Purdue shooters went cold, shooting under 30% for the first half and the Seminoles capitalized closing the half with a 12-point lead with monster jams from Terrence Mann.
Purdue shot 4 of 17 from three-point land in the first half while the Florida State offense dominated the paint scoring of 64% of their attempts down low. The second half would be a completely different story.
In the second half, the Boilermakers started hitting shots, Edwards ended up with 24 points and Cline went 7-11 from three ending with 21 points to spark the Boilermakers’ comeback from a 16-point deficit. However, Florida State had the last laugh with just over five seconds left Trent Forest hit a game-winning shot to secure the win. This closed out a 9-0 run to finish the game by the Seminoles.
Overall, the game seemed to have larger ebbs and flows than most. Large scoring runs followed by scoring droughts were the story of the night as both teams showed good offense and inconsistent play at times. Both defenses showed up when they needed to and the Seminoles squeaked out a win.
