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GREENSBORO, N.C. (seminoles.com) — Freshman Scottie Barnes scored his career-high 21 points and sophomore Balsa Koprivica recorded his second consecutive double double with 11 points and 10 rebounds but their efforts weren’t enough as No. 2 seeded Florida State Seminoles fell to No. 4 seeded Georgia Tech in the ACC Tournament Championship game by an 80-75 margin at the Greensboro Coliseum.
Florida State now heads to Indianapolis and the NCAA Tournament with a 16-6 overall record. Georgia Tech punches their ticket to the NCAA tournament as the ACC Champion with a 17-8 overall record.
The Seminoles shot 56 percent from the field (28 of 50) and 53 percent from the 3-point line (eight of 15). However, with 25 turnovers, Georgia Tech was able to score 31 points off of Florida State’s mistakes.
Senior M.J. Walker contributed 15 points and pulled down four rebounds. He was three of five from the 3-point line against Georgia Tech. He moved into ninth place in school history with 173 career 3-point field goals made. Walker is also 43rd in scoring in school history with a total of 1,056 career points scored.
Florida State was down by just one point at the half (31-30) after a buzzer-beating lay-up from Georgia Tech’s Michael Devoe. With 14 turnovers and only 11 made shots, the Seminoles went into the locker room in hopes of regaining focus to start the second half.
Coming back out of the locker room, Walker knocked down his second 3-point shot to regain the lead and redshirt junior RaiQuan Gray slammed home a dunk on the next possession. Koprivica added two buckets and the Seminoles were up 39-35 at the first media timeout.
The Yellow Jackets responded with a dunk from Moses Wright and a lay-up from Michael DeVoe, cutting Florida State’s lead to five and then tying it at 50-50 at the under-8 media timeout.
Gray finished two points short of his 13th double-figure scoring game this season with eight points.
With two blocked shots this evening, Koprivica is averaging a career-high 1.4 blocked shots per game in 21 games this season.
Redshirt junior Anthony Polite joined three other double-figure scoring Seminoles with 10 points while pulling down seven rebounds. With one shot from beyond the arc, Polite has made at least one 3-point field goal in 18 consecutive games this season and 19 consecutive games overall since a victory over Boston College on March 7, 2020. He also added a steal and is averaging nearly 1.0 steals per game for every game of his career.
The Seminoles held Georgia Tech to 44 percent shooting from the field and 22 percent shooting from the 3-point line. With six Seminoles pulling down at least two rebounds, Florida State held a 36-24 rebounding advantage over the Yellow Jackets.
Georgia Tech’s DeVoe (the tournament MVP) led the Yellow Jackets with 20 points and both Jordan Usher and Moses Wright added 15 points apiece. Wright, the 2021 ACC Player of the Year, had a team high of eight rebounds followed by Jose Alvarado’s 13 points and five rebounds.
Koprivica earned All-ACC Tournament First Team honors was Barnes was named to the Second Team.
No. 15 Florida State will now await Selection Sunday (March 14, 6pm ET) which will determine their seed in the NCAA Tournament that begins on Thursday, March 18.
