Matthew Cleveland’s layup as time expired in overtime gave Florida State an 81-80 win over nonconference foe Boston University on Wednesday night in a campus game in the Jacksonville Classic in Tallahassee, Fla.
BU’s Sukhmail Mathon’s three-point play with 1:52 left in OT gave the Terriers an 80-77 lead. Florida State’s Anthony Polite then sank a pair of free throws with 1:29 to go to make it a one-point game.
Cleveland and Caleb Mills finished with 17 points apiece to lead the Seminoles (5-1), who earned their fourth straight win. Mills added five assists and five steals and Polite and Cam’Ron Fletcher scored 11 apiece.
Javante McCoy finished with a team-high 22 points for Boston University (4-3), which had its three-game winning streak snapped. Mathon added 16 points and 12 rebounds and Daman Tate added 12 points off the bench for the Terriers.
Both the Seminoles and Terriers had unbeaten two-game runs in their Jacksonville Classic tournament games to win the Duval and JAX brackets respectively.
BU trailed by five with 13:34 to play in regulation before the Seminoles opened a nine-point lead at 59-50 with 8:16 left.
McCoy’s layup with 1:17 remaining pulled the Terriers within 67-61. A pair of Mills free throws with 48 seconds left restored the Seminoles’ eight-point advantage.
Mathon’s two free throws for BU six seconds later made it a six-point game and McCoy’s 3-pointer with 23 seconds to play made it 69-66. Mills and BU’s Anthony Morales traded free throws before Morales hit a 3 as time expired to force OT.
Florida State was up 37-35 at halftime after leading by as many as eight in the opening half.
–Field Level Media
