Florida State 73, Notre Dame 71 | Season Stats

SOUTH BEND, Ind. (AP) — Trent Forrest’s putback with 3.8 seconds left capped a ferocious late charge as No. 7 Florida State beat Notre Dame 73-71 Wednesday night to move closer to an Atlantic Coast Conference title.

Forrest’s basket gave the Seminoles (25-5, 15-4) just their second lead all night, the other coming at 5-4 in the opening minutes.

M.J. Walker scored 16 of his 21 points over the final 8:40 as FSU charged back from a 61-48 deficit.

Forrest added 15 points and Devin Vassell scored 13 for the Seminoles.

Prentiss Hubb’s half-court heave for the Fighting Irish as time expired kissed off the back iron. Hubb led Notre Dame (18-12, 9-10) with 24 points, 19 in the first half.

Dane Goodwin also scored 16 points for the Irish, 14 of those coming after the break.

BIG PICTURE

Florida State: The Seminoles stayed in control of their own destiny in pursuit of the No. 1 seed for next week’s ACC Tournament. A win over Boston College on Saturday assures at least a tie with Louisville (15-4) for the conference title, and FSU would hold the seeding tiebreaker from beating the Cardinals twice.

Notre Dame: The Irish’s only hope of making the NCAA Tournament is probably to win the ACC tournament for an automatic bid. They dropped to 0-6 against ranked teams in their last opportunity of the regular season and have lost 21 straight times to ranked opponents over the last 29 months.

UP NEXT

Florida State: The Seminoles look to finish the season 16-0 at home when Boston College visits on Saturday.

Notre Dame: The Irish close their regular season Saturday by hosting Virginia Tech.