Irish make Vassell, No. 18 Seminoles work for 68-61 win

The No. 18 Florida State men’s basketball team survived Monday night against Notre Dame, needing a late surge to beat the Fighting Irish 68-61 in Tallahassee, Fla.

Down for most of the second half, the Seminoles got a great game from reserve guard Devin Vassell, who finished with team-highs of 13 points and a seven rebounds, the latter a career-high, as Florida State (22-6 overall, 10-5 ACC bounced back two days after an 18-point loss to No. 5 North Carolina.

The Seminoles have won nine of their last 10 games in their push for a top 4 seed in the ACC Tournament.

Florida State led 63-59 lead with 1:11 to play after guard Trent Forrest made one of two free throws

After Notre Dame forward John Mooney trimmed it to 63-61 with a huge dunk, Forrest went back to the line with 35.1 seconds remaining and hit both free throws to push the lead back to 65-61.

Notre Dame (13-5, 3-12) was led by D.J. Harvey with 18 points, followed by guard Prentiss Hubb with 17 points. Mooney added 14 points and a team-high eight rebounds.

Despite being 13-point favorites against the Fighting Irish, the Seminoles has to scratch and claw to a 33-33 tie, getting a 16-6 run after trailing 27-17 with about six minutes left.

Notre Dame came out on a 12-4 run and took a 45-37 lead early in the second half, but with just under eight minutes to go, the Seminoles used a small run of their own to draw to within 53-52.

Then with 6:35 left in the game, the Seminoles grabbed their first lead since early in the first half on a Vassell 3-pointer, which made it 57-55.

Florida State center Christ Koumadje added 12 points and five rebounds, and forward Mfiondu Kabengele chipped in 10 points, despite going 3 of 11 from the field.

The Seminoles out-rebounded the Fighting Irish 40-26.

The game marked the first of three straight at home for Florida State.

–Field Level Media