Jacari White racked up 19 points and hit five 3-pointers to help No. 15 Virginia rally for a 61-58 victory over Florida State Tuesday evening in Tallahassee, Fla.
White scored 16 of his points in the second half, adding four rebounds and two assists to his game totals. All of those second-half points came in the final 14:45, more than doubling up the rest of his team combined over that span.
Thijs De Ridder added nine points and a team-high nine boards while Sam Lewis also scored nine for Virginia (21-3, 10-2 Atlantic Coast Conference), which has won five straight games.
Lajae Jones and Robert McCray V carried Florida State (11-13, 4-7), combining for 41 of their points in a losing effort that saw the Seminoles’ three-game win streak snapped.
McCray did plenty of scoring and a little bit of everything else with 20 points, four rebounds, four assists, three blocks and two steals. Jones finished with game highs of 21 points and 13 rebounds for his second double-double of the season.
Knotted at 45 with 11 minutes left, the Seminoles went on a 9-0 run capped off with a three-point play by McCray to take a 54-45 lead with 8:22 left.
From there, though, Florida State went ice cold and Virginia ended the game on a 16-4 run. The Cavaliers took their first lead since 15-12 on a dunk by White to make it 59-58 with 1:12 left.
The Seminoles missed their final 11 field-goal attempts, including a would-be game-tying 3-pointer in the final seconds by McCray.
Florida State was held to 29% shooting (its second-lowest total of the season) and 18.2% from 3-point range (its worst mark this season).
The Cavaliers won on the road despite shooting not far above their own season low at 37.3% from the floor, including 10-of-33 (30.3%) from 3-point range.
Virginia jumped out to a 14-10 lead before encountering a 1-for-13 shooting stretch which saw the Seminoles pull ahead 26-19 with 6:53 left in the first half.
From there, though, the Cavaliers rallied with a half-ending 13-6 run to level the score at 32-all at the intermission.
Of the Seminoles’ first-half points, 27 of them came from Jones and McCray. Only four Florida State players scored over the opening 20 minutes.
Virginia, on the other hand, had no player score more than Lewis’ seven but got points from eight of its nine players who saw first-half action.
