Giant Killers
Jan. 21, 2012
(13-6, 4-1 ACC)
(14-3, 2-1 ACC)
Snaer caught the well-timed pass from Luke Loucks and buried the game-winning 3-pointer at the buzzer. He finished the night with 14 points.
Xavier Gibson was 1-for-1 from 3-point range against Duke. He now has three made 3-pointers this season.
Duke was ranked No. 4 entering the game against FSU. The Seminoles have now beat two top-five teams in one week.
Duke had not lost a game on its home court in 45 previous tries prior to Saturday.
Florida State shot 54 percent from the field.
By: Brandon Mellor, Seminoles.com Senior Writer
DURHAM, N.C. -- All it took was 4.9 seconds for 45 games to go up in smoke Saturday evening on Tobacco Road.
Behind Michael Snaer's buzzer-beating 3-pointer, the Florida State men's basketball team upset No. 4 Duke, 76-73, to snap the Blue Devils' 45-game winning steak at Cameron Indoor Stadium.
Ending such a stellar run by one of college basketball's premier programs is one thing. The manner in which the Seminoles accomplished that task is another.
After Duke's Austin Rivers hit a lay-up to tie the game at 73-73 with less than five seconds left on the game clock and with no timeouts to use, Luke Loucks took FSU's inbounds pass hastily across mid court where Bernard James' well-placed screen gave him the necessary room to find the game's soon-to-be hero.
It may have happened in a blink of an eye but what the Seminoles (13-6, 4-1 Atlantic Coast Conference) did amongst the Cameron Crazies deserves a long look.
By beating Duke (14-3, 2-1), Florida State capped off what could be considered one of -- if not the -- greatest regular-season weeks in the program's history.
Exactly seven days after giving the Tallahassee crowd a reason to rush the court after upsetting then-No. 3 North Carolina, the 'Noles players had a reason to rush the court in Durham following Snaer's big shot. Not only did FSU defeat two top-five teams in a span of one week while also sandwiching a victory over Maryland in between those two games but the Seminoles also moved into a tie for first place in the competitive ACC.
It was also Duke's first home loss to an unranked opponent since 2007 when Florida State came into Cameron Indoor and did the same thing.
Perhaps nothing is more indicative of the strides that FSU has made since opening league play with a 20-point loss at Clemson than the 54-percent shooting mark the team registered against the Blue Devils.
The 'Noles' improved offensive play over the last several games also included featured a 50-percent clip from 3-point range against the Blue Devils -- with none being bigger than Snaer's crowd-stunning bucket as time expired.
Snaer's buzzer-beater was actually his second of the game as he also hit an improbable bank shot as the final seconds of the first half ticked off the clock. The Moreno Valley, Calif. native finished the game with 14 points as one of four FSU starters that scored in double figures.
Xavier Gibson's 16 points led Florida State while Bernard James added 12 points and five rebounds. Deividas Dulkys finished with 12 points and Loucks posted eight of his own.
The Seminoles held Duke to just 39.7 percent shooting as Rivers scored a game-high 19 points. Andre Dawkins added 14 points and Seth Curry had 12. Ryan Kelly -- one of just three bench players to participate for the Blue Devils -- contributed 10 points.
For the second game in a row, FSU finished with more assists than turnovers (15 and 12, respectively). Duke grabbed more offensive rebounds than the 'Noles and outscored their visitors 20-6 in second-chance points but couldn't stop Florida State from picking up its fourth consecutive conference win.
FSU returns to Tallahassee but will be headed right back to North Carolina in a few days. The seminoles play at Wake Forest on Jan. 25 with tip-off scheduled for 7 p.m. live on the ACC Network and online at ESPN3.com.
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