For opposing teams, coming into Cameron Indoor Stadium for a road game against the Duke Blue Devils is as daunting a task as any in college basketball. After all, Duke was riding a 45 game home win streak, 2nd to only Kentucky’s 47 at Rupp Arena, heading into a Saturday matinee against the suddenly surging Florida State Seminoles.
Most experts agree that North Carolina and Duke are the class of the ACC this season, with a plethora of teams like Virginia, NC State, and Maryland, with the return of Howard and Len, battling it out for 3rd place in the conference.
But over the last week, the Florida State Seminoles are serving notice that they may very well be, not only 3rd best, but possible contenders for the conference title after defeating UNC, Maryland, and now Duke in consecutive league games.
As if last weekend’s shocking blowout win over the Tarheels wasn’t surprising enough, the Seminoles made another statement Saturday by stunning the Blue Devils 76-73 on a Michael Snaer 3 point buzzer beater, ending the nation’s 2nd longest home win streak.
After Duke freshman Austin Rivers drove the lane and tied the game at 73-73 with only 5 seconds remaining, FSU’s Luke Loucks found former McDonald’s All American Snaer alone in the right corner, who promptly sank the game winner as time expired over Andre Dawkins. It marked only the second time in school history that the Seminoles have beaten both Duke and North Carolina in the same season, the other time coming in 2002.
The win also gives the Seminoles an impressive 4-1 start in ACC play, tying Duke for first place in conference. Of course they now own a tiebreaker over both Duke and UNC for winning head-to-head match-ups. On deck for FSU is two contests against Wake Forest and Georgia Tech before another big test against #15 Virginia on February 4th.
FSU Buzzer Beater Stuns Duke:
Allen Moll has been a lifelong NBA and NCAA College Basketball fan who watches and studies games religiously, and coaches youth basketball in his native Lehigh Valley region of Pennsylvania. Allen has also provided content to Bleacherreport.com, Upperdeckblog.com, Cleveland.com, CSN Philly.com, Buckets Magazine, in addition to being a tenured NBA and NCAA columnist for TheHoopDoctors.com.
