Cardinals hope to soar past Seminoles

Feb 28, 2015 - 3:56 PM Tallahassee, FL (SportsNetwork.com) - The 17th-ranked Louisville Cardinals will have to put the dismissal of Chris Jones behind them as they travel to face the Florida State Seminoles Saturday in an Atlantic Coast Conference bout at the Donald L. Tucker Center.

Jones was dismissed from the Louisville team Sunday by coach Rick Pitino following an incident Saturday night after the Cardinals' 55-53 win over Miami-Florida. Louisville has won two in a row, with a narrow 52-51 victory over Georgia Tech on Monday serving as the most recent, which brought the team's conference mark up to 10-5.

Florida State will try and make a statement with two regular-season games left on the slate. The Seminoles have dropped back-to-back games to Virginia (51-41) and Miami-Florida (81-77) to fall to 7-9 against ACC competition. At home, FSU is working on an 11-7 record.

The Cardinals have dominated the all-time series against Florida State, leading the Seminoles by a 30-9 margin. That includes a 10-6 mark against Florida State in games played in Tallahassee.

Louisville struggled offensively against the Yellow Jackets on Monday, but the one-point win can be a bit deceiving considering Georgia Tech's Tadric Jackson hit a 3-pointer with three seconds remaining to cut the Cardinals' lead. Louisville finished the game shooting 37 percent from the floor, and shot a dismal 7-of-17 from the free-throw line (41.2 percent) in the narrow win. Terry Rozier took over with 22 points on 8-of-19 shooting, and Wayne Blackshear chipped in with 10 points and eight rebounds in the win. Montrezl Harrell added eight points and eight boards for the Cards, who have three games left on their schedule.

Jones will be missed offensively for Louisville, considering the guard was netting 13.7 ppg and had dished out a team-best 94 assists. Going forward, Louisville will have to rely on Rozier and Harrell much more, along with Blackshear. Rozier leads the team and ranks fourth in the conference with a 17.7 ppg average, adding in 5.5 rpg to check in behind Harrell's team-leading 9.4 boards per outing. Harrell (ranking second in the ACC in rebounding) is eighth in the conference in scoring at 15.3 ppg, shooting 56.5 percent from the floor. Blackshear rounds out an active trio of double-digit scorers for Louisville, netting 10.5 ppg. The Cardinals are managing 69.9 ppg as a unit on 42.8 percent shooting, and are limiting opponents to 58.9 ppg (second-best in the ACC) on a 38 percent touch from the field.

Florida State did everything it could to hang with Miami on Wednesday night, but the Hurricanes did their damage from the free-throw line (31-of-38) that helped down the Seminoles in the four-point decision. FSU connected on 48 percent of their shots from the floor in the game, and made 19-of-27 from the free-throw line. Xavier Rathan-Mayes was once again stellar, collecting 35 points, five assists and four rebounds to lead the charge. Montay Brandon added 11 points with a team-high five rebounds in the defeat. Florida State shot 10-of-21 from 3-point distance in the game.

Rathan-Mayes has proven he can be the go-to player on the offensive end of the floor for Florida State in the continuous absence of Aaron Thomas. Rathan-Mayes leads the squad in scoring, averaging 14.4 ppg after the 35-point outburst Wednesday. He's also at the top of the team's assists list, having dished out 125 helpers in 28 games played. Brandon has been a steady contributor this season for the Seminoles, and enters the weekend averaging 12.0 ppg with a team-high 5.6 rpg mark. Devon Bookert, who chipped in seven points in the loss Wednesday, rounds out a trio of double-digit scorers for the 'Noles at 10.4 ppg. As a unit, FSU is averaging 67.6 ppg this season.