Notre Dame Fighting Irish - Official Athletics Website

Irish Dominate in Saturday's Victory Over Florida State

Feb. 11, 2017

Notre Dame Florida State Box Score

By: Robby Hamman

NOTRE DAME, Ind. – Notre Dame (19-7, 8-5 ACC) turned in arguably its best performance of the season on Saturday afternoon against No. 14/15 Florida State (21-5, 9-4 ACC), as the Irish defeated the Seminoles in commanding fashion by a score of 84-72 in front of an electric Purcell Pavilion crowd.

Junior forward Bonzie Colson’s incredible season continues, as the Medford, Massachusetts, native turned in the best game of his career on Saturday, scoring a career-high 33 points to go along with 13 rebounds. The 33 points are the most any Notre Dame player has scored in an ACC game in program history. Other Irish players to score in double figures were Matt Farrell (15) and Steve Vasturia (15).

How It Happened

Notre Dame played an inspired opening 20 minutes of basketball, feeding off the energy from the raucous, sold-out crowd. After being tied at 10-10 just over seven minutes into the first half, the Irish outscored the Seminoles 19-9 over the next eight minutes to grab a double-digit lead at 29-19. Notre Dame led by as many as 11 points before taking a nine-point advantage at 40-31 into the half.

The Irish came out firing in the second half, quickly pushing its lead to 17 points less than four minutes into the second stanza at 53-36. From that point on Notre Dame was in complete control, as the lead never dipped below double digits for the remainder of the game. The Irish cruised to an 84-72 victory.

Notre Dame Player Of The Game

Colson became the 61st player in Notre Dame history to reach the 1,000-point mark for his career on Saturday, scoring a career-high 33 points. The junior now has 1,014 points in his three-seasons with the Irish. Recently selected to the Wooden Award Late Season Top 20, Colson showed why he is one of the nation’s elite players on Saturday, posting his ACC-best 16th double-double of the season with 33 points and a game-high 13 rebounds.

The junior shot 12-of-18 from the field, tying his career record for most field goals made in a game. Colson was an absolute force in the second half, scoring 20 points on 7-of-9 shooting and grabbing eight rebounds. For the week the forward finished with averages of 30 points, 14.5 rebounds, three blocks and two steals per game, while shooting 22-of-34 (.647) from the field, 13-of-15 (.867) from the free-throw line and 3-of-4 from beyond the arc.

Stat Of The Game

Playing one of the tallest teams in the country, the undersized Irish outrebounded the Seminoles 41-34. Notre Dame is now 11-0 on the season when outrebounding the opposition. Colson was a huge factor, grabbing 13 rebounds while no Florida State player recorded more than six. Vasturia was second on the team in boards with seven.

Notre Dame Notes

  • With Colson joining the 1,000-point club the Irish have now had three players reach the career milestone this season (Vasturia, Beachem and Colson).
  • With the victory Notre Dame now has accrued 75 wins over the last three seasons, the most in a three-year stretch in program history.
  • The Irish are now 2-0 against the Seminoles when playing in Purcell Pavilion.
  • Notre Dame shot 19-of-21 from the free-throw line for a percentage of .905. The Irish have finished at or above 80 percent 14 times this season.
  • The Irish defense locked down the perimeter, allowing Florida State to go 3-for-15 from beyond the arc. The three-point field goal percentage of .200 is the lowest of any Irish opponent this season.
  • Colson has now recorded back-to-back 20-plus point performances for the first time in his career.
  • Saturday marked Colson’s eighth 20-point performance of the season and 10th of his career.
  • Vasturia’s 15 points mark his 20th game of the 2016-17 campaign in double figures.
  • Farrell surpassed the 10-point mark for the 22nd time this season with 15 points.
  • With nine assists, Farrell was one short of matching his career high and recording the second double-double of his career.
  • Farrell has now recorded six or more assists 15 times this season.
  • Freshman guard T.J. Gibbs earned the first start of his career on Saturday.

Up Next

The Irish are back on the road this week, as the team travels to Boston College to play the Eagles at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, February 14. The game will be broadcast on ESPNU.

— ND —

Robby Hamman joined Fighting Irish Media as athletics communications assistant director in September 2016, coordinating efforts for the volleyball and men’s lacrosse program.