HARTFORD, Conn. – Terance Mann drove through the lane, switched the ball from his left and to his right on the way to the basket, then finished a pretty layup with ease.
As he hit the floor, Mann looked toward Florida State’s bench and flexed toward his teammates, all of them seem to share the feeling that had settled over Hartford’s XL Center:
That after a tense, back-and-forth struggle with hot-shooting Vermont, the Seminoles would be just fine after all.
Mann scored 19 points – 17 in the second half – and Mfiondu Kabengele added 21 points and 10 rebounds as Florida State, seeded fourth in the NCAA tournament’s West region, topped No. 14 Vermont, 76-69.
Florida State (28-7), which has won five consecutive first-round games and set a new school record for wins in a single season, will meet either No. 5 Marquette or No. 12 Murray State here on Saturday.
Neither an uncharacteristic 3-point shooting for the Catamounts (27-7), nor a heavily-partisan Vermont crowd could derail the Seminoles, and neither could a rash of injuries both before and during the game.
Which isn’t to say they all didn’t try.
With FSU senior Phil Cofer sidelined by a foot injury, Vermont shot well above its head from beyond the arc and led by as many as nine points midway through the first half.
The Catamounts came into the game shooting just 35.9 from 3-point range, but against FSU connected on a season-high 16 of 32 (50 percent).
That more than helped them counter Florida State’s overwhelming size advantage, and it helped them to a 27-27 tie after a first half in which they outshot and out-rebounded the heavily-favored Seminoles.
FSU, however, went to its usual calling card in the second half, using its deep bench to rally and, eventually, pull away.
Even without Cofer, and with Mann and David Nichols playing through knocks picked up during the game, the Seminoles enjoyed healthy advantages in bench points (30-7), points in the paint (30-14), points off of turnovers (17-5) and points from the free-throw line (31-7).
They also submitted a few bids for end-of-day highlight shows.
All told, 39.4 percent of Florida State’s points came in the paint, aided by an efficient 13-of-20 clip via dunks and layups.
