Florida St. solidifies place among ACC leaders beating Miami 84-75 with backup assistance

CORAL GABLES, Fla. -- — Reserves Cam Cohen and Primo Spears scored 16 points each and surging Florida State led the entire way in beating Miami 84-75 on Wednesday night.

Cohen made all seven of his shot attempts while Jamir Watkins scored 15 points and Deante Green scored 10. The Seminoles (11-6, 5-1 ACC) have won five straight and seven of their last eight following a four-game losing streak. The Seminoles are tied for second in the conference with North Carolina State.

Nigel Pack led Miami with 19 points, Norchad Omier and Wooga Poplar each scored 15 and Bensley Joseph 10 for the Hurricanes (12-5, 3-3). Miami has lost three of its last four.

Pack sandwiched a pair of 3-pointers around a layup from Joseph in a 1:02 span in the second half to cap a 20-6 Miami spurt that reduced the Hurricanes' deficit to 59-57 with 11:22 remaining. Miami got within 62-60 less than a minute later and 73-71 with 4:59 left but couldn't get closer. Pack's basket with 2:28 served as Miami's final points and reduced its deficit to 79-75. Miami missed its last four shot attempts and final two foul shots.

AJ Casey made a layup to bring Miami within 19-17 with 12:41 before halftime. From there, the Seminoles outscored Miami 24-11 over a little more than the next 10 minutes and were up 43-28 with 2:26 before halftime. Miami closed with 7-2 run into intermission to reduce its deficit to 45-35.

Florida State opened the second half with an 8-2 run in the first three minutes and held its largest lead to that point at 53-37.

Florida State next tries to tackle Clemson at home on Saturday. Miami heads to Syracuse on Saturday.

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