No. 22 Florida State’s Trent Forrest drove inside the paint and lobbed the ball toward the left side of the hoop. Phil Cofer took a step before rising up and catching the ball, slamming it down to give the Seminoles a 16-point lead with under three minutes left. Cofer put the exclamation point on a night where Florida State could not miss.

Despite turning the ball over 21 times, the Seminoles (17-5, 5-4 Atlantic Coast) shot an impressive 54.5 percent from the field, riding the hot hands of Terance Mann and Mfiondu Kabengele to a 80-62 win over Syracuse (16-7, 7-3) on Tuesday night. Only four players for Syracuse found the scoring column in the loss.

Here are the superlatives from Syracuse’s loss.

Big Moment: Terance Mann’s breakaway dunk

With just under nine minutes remaining and Syracuse trailing by five, Elijah Hughes attempted to pass the ball toward Tyus Battle at the top of the key. But Forrest picked the ball off, passing it forward to Mann, alone on a breakaway. He rose and slammed it with two hands, pushing the Seminoles lead to nine. Syracuse managed to keep the game close for the majority of the second half despite trailing by 22 at one point, but Mann’s breakaway dunk took the life out of the Carrier Dome crowd that quickly quieted down.

Stud: Tyus Battle

After one of the worst games in his college career, Battle was nothing short of dominant against Florida State. In an up-and-down first half that featured a 27-5 FSU run and a 14-3 SU run, Battle was the only consistent player for the Orange.

The junior finished with 16 first-half points on 6-of-9 shooting, while the rest of Syracuse scored just 15 points on 6-of-20 shooting. Battle’s aggressive nature continued in the second half, as he finished with a game-high 23 points and a pair of steals in the loss.

Dud: Frank Howard

Nothing went right for Frank Howard on Tuesday night. In the first half, he missed both his 3s and added a turnover as Florida State jumped out to a 22-point lead. He was subbed out and never returned until the second half, as Syracuse cut the once-large deficit to single digits.

However, Howard struggled to start the second half and was subbed out not three minutes in after back-to-back passes missed their intended target. He checked into the game but never shot again, finishing with zero points and three turnovers in 14 minutes.

Highlight: Forcing turnovers

Florida State’s offense was efficient — shooting wise — the entire game. But the reason Syracuse was able to battle back and cut the lead to just two midway through the second half was because of FSU’s inability to control the ball. The Seminoles turned the ball over 21 times, constantly leading to Syracuse fastbreaks. In a game where SU did not beat FSU in most statistical categories, it did in points off turnovers, 18-16.

Lowlight: 3-point defense

Right from the start, Florida State attacked from beyond the arc. M.J. Walker opened the scoring for FSU with two quick 3s before Kabengele added two more later. The Syracuse 2-3 zone has been strong as of late, and Florida State entered the matchup ranked 239th in the country in 3-point shooting.

It was a perfect recipe for an upset over another Top 25 team. But FSU kept on firing and kept on connecting. Leading by seven with just under eight minutes to play, Kabengele added back-to-back 3s to put the game out of reach. The Seminoles finished with a 50-percent clip from 3 in the win.

Published on February 5, 2019 at 10:00 pm

Contact Charlie: csdistur@syr.edu | @charliedisturco