No. 23 Notre Dame held to season low in points at FSU

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) - It didn't take long for Notre Dame coach Mike Brey to move on from Saturday's 77-56 loss at Florida State.

"I was over it at about the 15-minute mark of the second half. Wasn't feeling it. I wasn't feeling it because Florida State was playing really well," Brey said. "I thought they made some tough 3s that kind of broke our back anytime it looked like we had a little life."

The 23rd-ranked Fighting Irish (19-9, 10-6 Atlantic Coast Conference) have dropped two of three going into Wednesday's showdown with No. 12 Miami.

Notre Dame came into the game tied for 21st in the nation in field goal percentage (48.3 percent). But Florida State (17-12, 7-10 ACC) held the Irish to a season low in field goal percentage (35.7) and points.

In the second half, the Irish made just eight of their 27 attempts from the field, and the closest they got was within 13.

"As bad as we were in our ball-screen defense, they were excellent. ... They blocked seven. And they changed probably six," Brey said. "You can't get any of those easies that kind of make you feel good. That demoralizes you. So I think it was a combination of their bigs and their guards on the point of attack."

Demetrius Jackson, who led Notre Dame with 13 points, was blunt about his team's performance, saying: "We got beat up."

"Our defense was a little lackadaisical," added Zach Auguste, who had 12 points and 17 rebounds. "They were being aggressive, pushing the ball and getting great shots."

Florida State's defense helped get it going on the offensive end, especially in transition as it made a season-high 11 3-pointers. Dwayne Bacon scored 21 points and the Seminoles led throughout.

They were up 46-30 at halftime and at one point in the second half led by 23.

"They had been one of the top one or two offensive execution teams in the country. We had to have a tremendous effort for 40 minutes in order to be successful against them," Florida State coach Leonard Hamilton said after his team snapped a five-game losing streak.

Benji Bell added 14 points, including four 3-pointers, and Florida State evened its record to 2-2 at home against ranked teams.

PIVOTAL MOMENT

With the score tied at 7, Florida State took control with an 11-3 run. Notre Dame pulled to 18-17 before the Seminoles ran off seven straight points, the last five from Bell. Florida State led by as many as 18 late in the first half.

LONG-DISTANCE BELL

Bell, a 6-foot-4 junior guard, has 36 field goals this season, 21 of them 3-pointers. The 14 points marked his fourth double-digit game.

Bell was the leading player off the bench as Florida State's reserves had a 33-14 advantage.

"He's a great shooter. Nobody got mad at him for taking the heat checks because he was hot. We need that for a player coming off the bench," Bacon said.

STAT LINES

Florida State's 46 first-half points were its most in an ACC game this season. The previous high was 45 against Virginia Tech on Feb. 20. ... It's the first time this season Notre Dame has had two straight games in which it had more turnovers (11) than assists (10).

TIP-INS

Notre Dame: Jackson had four assists to become the 18th player in school history with 300 in his career. Jackson has 301, and five of the top 10 players on the list have been during Brey's tenure.

Florida State: Bacon and Malik Beasley became the second and third freshmen in school history to score more than 450 points. Bacon has 457 this season and Beasley 451. Xavier Rathan-Mayes has the record with 475 last season.

UP NEXT

Notre Dame hosts No. 12 Miami on Wednesday.

Florida State hosts Syracuse next Saturday.

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Follow Joe Reedy at twitter.com/joereedy. His work can be found at http://collegebasketball.ap.org/journalist/joe-reedy

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Follow Joe Reedy at twitter.com/joereedy. His work can be found at http://collegebasketball.ap.org/journalist/joe-reedy