Florida State 75, Georgia Tech 56

"I'm very pleased," said Florida State head coach Steve Robinson. "We got off to a good start today and I think that just helped our kids' confidence. It's very tough to get road wins in this league, and coming off a loss I was certainly very concerned coming in here."

Three Seminoles posted career-high stats in the win. Junior forward Ron Hale led Florida State with a career best 24 points plus six rebounds, while forward Damous Anderson added 15 points and seven rebounds, and point guard Delvon Arrington added thirteen assists, plus seven rebounds and six points.

"I thought our key was the way (point guard) Delvon Arrington played," said Hale. "He kept on beating his man and did a great job of distributing the ball."

Florida State dominated Georgia Tech throughout the game, scoring the first six points of the game and then stretching their lead by as much as 16 points in the first half and 21 points in the second.

The Jackets managed to get on the scoreboard for the first time in the game at 16:21, on a three pointer by T.J. Vines. Another three point shot by Vines helped the Jackets pull within six points at 1:53, but Oliver Simmons' three pointer and Terrell Baker's layup stretched the Seminole lead to 30-19.

Tech's Tony Akins managed to sneak in his three point shot just before the buzzer to cut the Seminole lead to 30-22 at the half.

In the second half, the Jackets closed to within six points again, at 14:37, but a Tech turnover and a loose ball foul called on center Alvin Jones ended the momentum.

"We felt good going into the half, eight down and battling back from the 16 point deficit," said Tech forward Jason Collier, a lone bright spot with 17 points and four rebounds. "But we didn't respond, and Florida State took it right to us. We didn't come to play today."

Defensively, the Seminoles fought hard on the boards to tie Tech at 37 rebounds. In their past four games, Florida State had been outrebounded by an average of 14.

"We did a much better job today of rebounding. We know we're undersized and have to do a good box out and work hard to get them, but today we had a terrific team effort," said coach Robinson.

For the Yellow Jackets (10-6), the loss at home snapped a seven game win streak and dropped their ACC record to 1-3. They shot just 36.2 percent of their field goal attempts and committed 24 turnovers which led to 22 Seminoles points.

"That was the low point of our season. We came out very, very flat, and Florida State did a fantastic job. We were outplayed," admitted disappointed Tech coach Bobby Cremins.

Copyright ?1999 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or distributed.