National Basketball Association
BOXSCORE | RECAP
Florida State 68, Notre Dame 61
When: 7:00 PM ET, Monday, February 25, 2019
Where: Donald L. Tucker Center, Tallahassee, Florida
Officials: # Lee Cassell, # Don Dailey, # Ted Valentine
Attendance: 9519

No. 18 Florida State survived a tough test Monday night against Notre Dame, needing a late surge to beat the Fighting Irish 68-61 in Tallahassee, Fla.

Down for most of the second half, the Seminoles got a great game from reserve guard Devin Vassell, who finished with team highs of 13 points and seven rebounds, the latter a career high, as Florida State (22-6, 10-5 ACC bounced back two days after an 18-point road loss to then-No. 8 North Carolina.

The Seminoles have won nine of their past 10 games in their push for a top-four seed in the ACC tournament.

Florida State led 63-59 lead with 54 seconds to play after guard Trent Forrest made one of two free throws.

After Notre Dame forward John Mooney trimmed it to 63-61 with a huge dunk, Forrest went back to the line with 35.1 seconds remaining and hit both free throws to push the lead back to 65-61.

Notre Dame (13-15, 3-12) was led by D.J. Harvey with 18 points, followed by guard Prentiss Hubb with 17 points. Mooney added 14 points and a team-high eight rebounds.

The Seminoles has to scratch and claw to take a 33-33 tie into halftime, going on a 16-6 run after trailing 27-17 with about six minutes left.

Notre Dame came out of the locker room and went on a 12-4 run for a 45-37 lead early in the second half, but with just under eight minutes to go, the Seminoles used a small run of their own to draw to within 53-52.

Then with 6:35 left in the game, the Seminoles grabbed their first lead since early in the first half on a Vassell 3-pointer that made it 57-55.

Florida State center Christ Koumadje added 12 points and five rebounds, and forward Mfiondu Kabengele chipped in 10 points despite going 3 of 11 from the field.

The Seminoles outrebounded the Fighting Irish 40-26.

The game marked the first of three straight at home for Florida State, with a Saturday meeting against North Carolina State up next. The Irish play at Louisville on Sunday.

--Field Level Media

Top Game Performances
 
Notre Dame   Florida State
D.J. Harvey 18 Scoring Devin Vassell 13
Temple Gibbs 5 Assists Trent Forrest 4
John Mooney 8 Rebounds Devin Vassell 7
D.J. Harvey 4 Free Throws Made Trent Forrest 4
Temple Gibbs 4 Steals M.J. Walker 2
Juwan Durham 2 Blocks Mfiondu Kabengele 2
Team Stats Summary
 
Team Points FG% 3PM-3PA FTM-FTA Assists Rebounds Blocks Steals Turnovers
Notre Dame 61 39.3 8-21 9-13 9 23 4 10 9
Florida State 68 44.6 6-19 12-17 12 34 4 3 14