By Zolan-Kanno Youngs, News Staff
With nine seconds on the clock, Florida State University’s Ian Miller put up the potential game winner against Northeastern in the third-place game of the Puerto Rico Tip-off. The shot came up short and hope was instilled in Northeastern fans … but only for about one-tenth of a second.
Devon Bookert corralled an offensive rebound off the miss and drained a fade-away shot along the baseline of the Roberto Clemente Coliseum court with one second left on the clock, sealing a 62-60 win for FSU on Sunday.
“I thought for most of the game Northeastern outplayed us,” FSU coach Leonard Hamilton said. “I thought they had a tremendous game plan, they were very patient, they executed very well. I thought they were energized and they played with tremendous focus,”
A great effort from the Huskies was in no way suspect as Coen’s team led the way against FSU for most of the contest. Red-shirt junior Scott Eatherton had another monster game with his third straight double double (21 points and 15 rebounds). Junior forward Reggie Spencer added 13 points and seven rebounds and sophomore point guard David Walker also recorded 13 points.
“We realized how good we can actually be playing at this competition and actually being able to compete,” Eatherton said. “If we just have the effort for every game, no matter who the team is, I think we can be a really good team. I’m excited to get back and start practice and get ready for the next game.”
It looked like the Huskies were going to tally another upset in San Juan when the game was tied 50-50 with six minutes left in the contest. However, two Northeastern turnovers in less than 20 seconds led to FSU baskets, giving Hamilton’s team a 54-50 lead.
After Eatherton and FSU’s Robert Gilchrist exchanged baskets, Walker recorded his sixth turnover on the afternoon, leading to another basket for FSU.
Turnovers plagued the Huskies in the loss as the team recorded 19 as a team, compared to FSU’s nine.
“I thought some of those errors were self-inflicted,” Coen said. “We had a couple late taking the ball out of bounds and a few things where we mishandled the basketball and that’s the wear-down effect of the pressure. They put a lot of pressure on our guards.”
With FSU leading 58-52 with just over two minutes to play, Spencer converted on two free throws and showed his court vision with a great pass to sophomore forward Derrico Peck, who converted on a slam dunk.
After two more made free throws from Eatherton, FSU’s Montay Brandon gave the Monarchs a two-point lead with an offensive put-back. Walker then tied the game with two made free throws before the game-winning play from FSU.
Despite only coming out of Puerto Rico with one win, Coen found more positives than negatives with his team’s play.
“One of the things we wanted to do coming down to this tournament was find out about ourselves and to compete and in that sense we’ll consider our trip to Puerto Rico a success,” Coen said. “I know we didn’t get the victories we were looking for but I couldn’t be more proud of my team with their effort, with their intensity and with their togetherness.”
The Huskies will travel to Richmond for their next game against Virginia Commonwealth University on Nov. 29 at 7 p.m.
