The Seminoles came into Cassell with a close road loss to the Wahoos, and a head of steam up. The ‘Noles are a head taller at all of the inside positions and were playing a smooth controlled basketball game.

Their guard Devin Vassell hit eight of 10 from the floor, while going 7-7 from three and 4-4 from the charity stripe. Tech would have had serious problems beating him all by himself. He led all scoring with 27 total, and all of the remainder of the ‘Noles just contributed in the single digits... and that list was pretty long. It seems they played their entire bench.

The Hokies started off hot, but then quickly went stone cold, with turnover problems and more low percentage shot selections. Wabissa Bede had another problematic game hitting just 2-6 from the floor.

Eventually Hunter Cattoor, Tyrece Radford, and Landers Nolley II would step up to get the Hokie offense sort of turned around, but it was already too late. With FSU off to a high single digit and more often than not double digit lead, all that they needed to do was keep Tech at arm’s length. Frankly, they just “out talled” the Hokies, pushing them out on the perimeter where the lid just would not come off the bucket enough to make up lost ground.

Shooting Percentages: Field Goals - 43.1% 3-Pointers - 23.3% Free Throws - 100.0%

While it is truly nice to see a 100% free throw shot ratio, the truth is that FSU played a clean game and Tech only made it to the Charity Stripe 6 times.

The reality is that Radford, Nolley, and Cattoor had a really good game, each scoring in double digits. That was just not enough to keep up with Florida State, though. Tech needed the same sort of game from more of its players, or someone had to catch fire. Cattoor looked hot for a few minutes in the closing minutes of the first half, but evidently FSU found the fire extinguisher. This loss was expected, and wasn’t as bad as most of us had feared; but competitive L’s are not what the team is after.

The Tuesday game is a road trip to Atlanta to face a beatable but very scrappy Georgia Tech. The chase for the bubble continues but the solid opportunities for wins that count big are waning.

We are officially in a skid. Three games in a row can shred the sails. The Gobblers need the win on Tuesday, badly.

GO HOKIES!!!