No. 14 Florida State, Villanova meet in AdvoCare final

Villanova cruised into the final of the AdvoCare Invitational championship game with a win Friday afternoon in Lake Buena Vista, Fla. No. 14 Florida State? Not so much.

The Seminoles rallied late to force overtime Friday night against No. 19 LSU, then needed a lucky bounce in overtime on a last-second 3-pointer to defeat the Tigers and advance to Sunday's title showdown.

"Of course we drew up that last play for Mfiondu to take a jump shot deep in the corner," laughed Florida State coach Leonard Hamilton, referring to forward Mfiondu Kabengele's 3-pointer that bounced off the rim and then into the basket for the 79-76 win in the semifinals. "That's the shot we wanted all along."

Florida State's reward for its win -- which moved its record to 5-0 to start the season -- is a meeting with defending NCAA champion Villanova at HP Fieldhouse.

The Seminoles opened play in the AdvoCare Invitational with a 93-61 win Monday at home over Canisius, then action moved to Orlando, where Florida State dispatched UAB 81-63 on Thursday. Less than 24 hours later came the victory over LSU -- a win that Hamilton said told him a lot about this year's team.

"Our guys, we're strong in character," Hamilton said. "I thought they grew up a little bit tonight."

Villanova (4-2) reached the championship game with a 77-58 win on Friday over Oklahoma State and an 83-56 victory on Thursday over Canisius 83-56.

Before winning two straight, the Wildcats hit two road bumps with ugly losses to Michigan and Furman in their third and fourth games of the season.

Wildcats coach Jay Wright called reaching the championship game Sunday "just a good next step for us."

The two teams are led by star forwards. Villanova's Eric Paschall leads the Wildcats at 12.4 points and 6.4 rebounds per game, and he's coming off a 22-point outburst in the win over Oklahoma State.

Florida State is led by Terance Mann with 13.6 points per game and 7.4 rebounds per game.

The Seminoles and Wildcats have only met once in the final of the Red Lobster Classic, another holiday tournament. Villanova won 68-67.

After Sunday, Florida State returns home and next plays Wednesday against Purdue in the ACC/Big Ten Challenge.

Villanova's next game will be Saturday at La Salle.