The 19th ranked Florida State Seminoles (23-6, 11-5) held on to a 76-74 win over Clemson (14-14, 4-12) on Saturday afternoon in South Carolina.
FSU came into the game having lost their last two road conference games, and Clemson pushed the Seminoles throughout. Florida State only had a one point lead, at 38-37, going into halftime. When the Seminoles built a 69-64 lead with 4:19 to go and appeared ready to take control, again Clemson answered with eight consecutive points to give the Tigers a 72-69 lead. With his Seminoles trailing 74-73, it was Xavier Rathan-Mayes coming through with a layup with 1:22 left that gave Florida State a final lead that they would use to hang on to the 76-74 win.
Rathan-Mayes finished the game with a team-best 15 points and seven assists for Florida State - Jonathan Isaac added 14 points while Dwayne Bacon chipped in 12. Clemson, whose last five ACC losses have come by a combined 12 points, was led by 24 points and eight rebounds from Jaron Blossomgame and 15 points from Shelton Mitchell. Sidy Djitte also scored 12 points and grabbed nine rebounds off the Tigers bench.
Florida State remains two games out of first place in the ACC going into the final week of the regular season, and have a huge road contest against #10 Duke scheduled for Tuesday night. The Blue Devils will go into Tuesday's game hungry, having lost two in a row including a 55-50 loss at Miami on Saturday afternoon. The showdown between Florida State and Duke comes up at 7 PM on Tuesday night in Durham, North Carolina.