By Coley Harvey, The Orlando Sentinel –
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — With just less than four minutes remaining in Sunday night’s NCAA Tournament game against Florida State, Cincinnati guard Sean Kilpatrick let out a loud yell in front of the Seminoles’ bench.
As the game went to its last media timeout, the shout signified one of the final true swings of momentum to the see-saw Sunday night, Round of 32 contest. That momentum change ended up ultimately leading to a 62-56 Seminoles loss to Cincinnati.
Even as loud as it was, Kilpatrick’s primal scream wouldn’t be the loudest of the night. That came about three minutes later, when Bridgestone Arena erupted from vociferious Cincinnati fans who voiced their approval of guard Dion Dixon’s perfectly-timed steal of Luke Loucks and his subsequent rapid-fire dunk.
After another Bearcats 3 and a sequence of made free throws by Cincinnati players, FSU’s dream season officially ended. Boston will not be the Seminoles’ next trip.
One week after taking Atlanta by storm and claiming their first ACC Tournament title, the Seminoles late Sunday night tried to place their stamp on this second Southern city, but couldn’t.
For once, the late-game rally didn’t go their way.
For only the fourth time this season, the Seminoles lost a game by less than four points. They finish the season 8-4 in such contests. The game-winning shot that had become so prevalent for this team, wouldn’t happen.
Hoping to notch a pair of wins at Bridgestone Arena this weekend, FSU would have advanced into the East Regional Sweet 16, which will be held inside the TD Garden in Boston. Instead of the third-seeded Seminoles (25-10) playing No. 2 seed Ohio State (29-7) on Thursday, the sixth-seeded Bearcats (26-10) will do the honors instead. The Buckeyes on Saturday knocked off Gonzaga.
FSU reached the Round of 32 with a three-point win over St. Bonaventure on Friday.
Last year, the Seminoles advanced to the Sweet 16 and fell to Virginia Commonwealth, 72-71, in San Antonio, Texas.
The big story line late in Sunday’s game was the 3-pointer. Cincinnati guard Sean Kilpatrick made a pair of clutch long-range shots inside the final four minutes of the game. So did Bearcats guard Cashmere Wright. FSU guard Luke Loucks responded to one of them with his own 28-foot rainmaker that temporarily tied the game.
In all, FSU made six 3s, and was paced by guard Michael Snaer, who hit three of them. Snaer finished with 11 points.
Against St. Bonaventure on Friday, Snaer had a career-low zero points in an outing that was a far cry from the style of offensive play Seminoles fans had come accustomed to seeing him have. The player who scored 16, 18 and 20 points in the ACC Tournament went 0-for-7 from the field against the Bonnies.
Immediately after that game, he was resolved to make up for the misses, most of which came off of wide open looks.
“I laughed it off,” he said.
In addition to Snaer’s night, FSU senior forward Bernard James had his second double-digit game of the tournament, scoring 12. He had a career-high and game-high 19 in the win over the Bonnies.
Due to the short turnaround time FSU would have had to get to Boston, the Seminoles were tentatively planning on staying in Nashville until Tuesday. They would have proceed to take a plane to Boston from there and not return to Tallahassee until after their next set of games.
Perhaps it was for the best. FSU’s previous trip to Boston didn’t go very well. On Feb. 8, in a game at Boston College, they couldn’t overcome a barrage of Eagles 3-pointers. While rallying in order to climb back from a double-digit deficit, the Eagles kept throwing up long-range shots. Even with a lead they continued to do so. In all, they made 10 3s, en route to a 64-60 win over FSU.
