Instacap: OSU Upsets Unbeaten 19th-Ranked Seminoles 71-70

Oklahoma State upset unbeaten 19th-ranked Florida State 71-70 in Game 1 of the Orange Bowl Classic on Saturday. Mitchell Solomon earns MVP honors with the game-winning tip-in followed by the game-sealing drawn charge on the next possession.

It was a fast-paced, sometimes sloppy, contest full of turnovers that saw both teams’ leading scorers catch separate cases of the cramps. Lots of turnovers and lots of fast-break scoring.

Oklahoma State scored 21 points off of 22 forced turnovers. Florida State came into Saturday’s game averaging just 13 turns per game.

Jeffrey Carroll led all scorers in his first start of the season, shooting 7 of 19 (4 of 7 from 3) for 23 points. He also grabbed 7 rebounds and dished out 3 assists. Florida State came in known for a balanced scoring attack but it was Oklahoma State that had four double-digit scorers with Carroll’s 23, plus 12 apiece from Mitchell Solomon and Tavarius Shine and 10 from Lindy Waters.

Florida State was led by Phil Cofer with a career-high 22 points on 7-of-15 shooting and a career-high 5 makes from 3. He also grabbed 4 boards. Terance Mann scored 20 on 9-of-15 shooting and grabbed 14 rebounds.

Oklahoma State was down 7 with eight minutes remaining and began to stagnate on offense in large part to a full-court press employed by Florida State. But the Cowboys rallied late with some well-timed shots from Jeffrey Carroll and Tavarius Shine and took a 67-64 lead with just under three minutes remaining.

After Florida State scored on a putback to go up 70-69 with 10 seconds remaining, Kendall Smith wisely pushed the ball down-court instead of taking OSU’s last timeout. Florida State was not able to get set in its defense and Mitchell Solomon tipped in the Smith missed layup for the game-winner. With 5.4 left, Solomon finished back-to-back impressive plays by taking a charge, effectively sealing the win with .09 seconds on the clock.