In what seemed like a “must win” game Wednesday night, Florida State defeated visiting Miami 74-66 in front of 7,565 very boisterous fans at the Donald L. Tucker Center.
The victory was ACC regular season career win No. 199 for Coach Leonard Hamilton.
"I think everybody who played was trying to get that bad taste in terms of getting a win for us tonight," Hamilton said after the game.
"The student body obviously stepped up, and we needed them, and they gave us a lot of energy, made it a little challenging for the visitors team."
The Noles were led by Malique Ewin who scored a career-high 24 points and Jamir Watkins added 16 points.
It was somewhat of a sloppy first half for FSU, with shots not dropping and the Noles took their first lead with just 1:37 left in the half. The game saw seven lead changes and eight ties.
Wednesday night was also marked with some records. Ewin finished a perfect 10 of 10 from the field to become just the fourth player in school history – and the first since 1992 to do so. And he’s the first player in school history to record a perfect shooting night with at least 10 field goals made in an ACC game.
Watkins scored his 1,500th career point on a free throw with 51 seconds left to play in the game and has now scored 1,502 career points.
JAMIR WATKINS WELCOME TO THE 1,500 CLUB!!!😳 pic.twitter.com/VkRWjZonGE
— Florida State Men’s Basketball (@FSUHoops) February 20, 2025
Florida State is now 16-10 overall and sits in 8th place in the ACC with a 7-8 conference record.
Next up, the Noles travel to Louisville for a Saturday noon tipoff against the #25 Cardinals.