Syracuse destroys FSU, 96-57 in ACC Tourney

NEW YORK (AP) Cole Swider had 28 points and 13 rebounds in 28 minutes, Joe Girard added 16 points and No. 9 seed Syracuse beat eighth-seeded Florida State 96-57 on Wednesday in the second round of the 2022 New York Life ACC Men’s Basketball Tournament.

It was Syracuse’s second largest margin of victory in a conference tournament game in program history.

Syracuse advances to play top-seeded and No. 7 Duke in the quarterfinals on Thursday. The Orange lost both regular-season meetings with the Blue Devils, 79-59 on Jan. 22 and 97-72 on Feb. 26.

Syracuse went ahead by double figures with 10:52 left in the first half during a 11-0 run – with eight straight points by Swider. The Orange made three straight 3-pointers during the run, with Girard making the other, and led 49-26 at the break behind Swider’s 20 points and nine rebounds.

Florida State missed eight straight shots midway through the first half and was 12-of-38 shooting at the break, including 1 of 13 from 3-point range. The Seminoles made just one of their first 15 shots of the second half – including 10 straight misses.

Syracuse led 81-41 on a Jimmy Boeheim dunk, off an assist from Buddy Boeheim, with 7:32 left.

Buddy Boeheim finished with 14 points and Jimmy Boeheim had 12 for Syracuse (16-16), which split the regular-season series with FSU.

Swider, who had 2, 36 and 6 points in his last three games, was 9 of 15 from the floor, including 4 of 6 from distance, for his second highest scoring game of the season. Girard also made four 3-pointers and Buddy Boeheim added three.

Florida State (17-14) starters had just 16 combined points through the opening 29 minutes as the Seminoles trailed 70-34.

Matthew Cleveland scored 13 points off the bench for Florida State, which had its three-game win streak snapped. The Seminoles finished 2 of 25 from 3-point range and shot 32% overall.