No. 19 Florida State men rally past South Florida in Orange Bowl Classic

Luke Rideau wasn’t interested in excuses.

“I don’t want to get into ‘coulda, woulda, shoulda,’ ” said Rideau, a former Blanche Ely point guard who is now a senior for the South Florida Bulls. “But we felt we should’ve had this one.”

It was hard to argue with that logic, especially after the Bulls lost a 10-point lead in the final seven minutes, allowing the 19th-ranked Florida State Seminoles to escape with a 66-60 win on Saturday afternoon in the annual Orange Bowl Classic at BB&T Center.

The Seminoles (10-2) used a late 17-1 run to rally past the Bulls (6-6). FSU’s tenacious defense forced 24 turnovers and blocked 10 shots.

“They outplayed us for a majority of the game,” FSU coach Leonard Hamilton said. “This is an opportunity for us to learn from our shortcomings.”

FSU was off early, missing 13 of its first 14 shots and falling behind 17-4. During that span, USF shot 50 percent and had eight second-chance points.

The Seminoles closed their deficit to 31-28 at halftime and took their first lead of the game, 47-46, on a Trent Forrest layup with 8:06 left in the second half.

USF came back with a five-point play as Justin Brown made a three-pointer, and David Collins swished a pair of free throws following a technical foul on FSU’s bench.

Hamilton said the technical left him puzzled.

“I really don’t know exactly what happened, other than the ref was on the other side of the court, and he has really good ears, I guess,” Hamilton said. “I didn’t hear (anything), and I was right there. … But if the ref makes the call, that means we’re guilty.”

Soon after the technical, a Collins three-pointer and a Michael Durr dunk gave USF a 57-47 lead with 6:32 left, and FSU appeared to be on the ropes.

USF coach Brian Gregory fed on the boxing analogy to describe a 40-minute college basketball game.

“It’s like 10 four-minute rounds,” Gregory said. “In the last round and a half, they outplayed us.”

The Seminoles’ left hook came on a Devin Vassell’s jumper with 2:01 left in the second half, giving FSU a 60-58 lead that it did not relinquish.

Durr, USF’s 7-foot center, led all scorers with 15 points. Rideau had 14 points, seven rebounds and four assists. Collins also had 14 points, and USF guard Ezacuras Dawson, who is from South Miami High, had seven points and a team-high three steals.

FSU had four players in double figures, with all of them scoring 11 points: Forrest, RaiQuan Gray, M.J. Walker and Anthony Polite. Gray is from Fort Lauderdale Dillard High.

The Seminoles shot just 40 percent from the floor, including 7-of-27 on three-pointers (25.9 percent).

Beating USF without any gaudy offensive numbers speaks to FSU’s defense and what that did to the Bulls.

“We got out of sorts,” Rideau said of how USF played down the stretch. “We weren’t playing our basketball. (FSU) switched to a zone. We didn’t adjust to that well. That was the main thing — (not) taking care of the basketball.”

▪ This is the eighth consecutive year FSU has played in the OB Classic. The Seminoles are 9-2 all-time in this event.