Multiple personality disorder is defined as having the presence of two or more distinct identities.
On Saturday afternoon in Tallahassee, Virginia's identities were duking it out like the Klitschko brothers.
In the end, it was the identity that commits turnovers in bunches and can't make baskets that defeated the identity that does just the opposite.
Florida State, thanks to two key hoops from Michael Snaer down the stretch, made Virginia pay for its inner conflict, defeating the No. 16 Cavaliers 58-55 in front of a crowd of 11,757 at the Tucker Center.
"I told our guys in the locker room that you made a statement with the kind of heart and kind of fight you have in you and that was good," said Virginia coach Tony Bennett, whose team's three-game winning streak came to an end. "But we also made a statement that we have to clean up some of these turnovers and be more efficient to play a team like this."
Okaro White led the No. 21 Seminoles (16-6, 7-1 ACC) with 13 points. Mike Scott and Joe Harris had 16 points each for Virginia (18-4, 5-3). However, Scott had seven of U.Va.'s season-high 20 turnovers.
"We just weren't sure with the ball," Scott said.
FSU committed 19 turnovers.
"They certainly, with their quality defense, made us turn it over a lot of the time, but some of that is on us because we got sped up and rattled in a stretch there," Bennett said. "If you want to be competitive and successful in a game like this, you can't give it away."
After Harris hit a 3-pointer to pull Virginia within two with 2:30 to play, Snaer drained a 3 to put FSU up 53-48. On the Seminoles' next possession, he made a layup to keep the lead at five.
A Malcolm Brogdon 3-pointer cut the margin to 58-55 with 2.3 seconds left. After Snaer missed a free throw, Virginia had a chance to send the game to overtime, but a half-court heave by Jontel Evans came after the final buzzer (and missed anyway).
After trailing 23-22 at the break, Virginia let the game slip away early in the second half. An Xavier Gibson dunk off a nice feed from Snaer started a 7-1 spurt, which was capped by a Deividas Dulkys 3-pointer, that put the Seminoles up 30-24.
U.Va. went the first 5:05 of the second half without a field goal.
The Seminoles took a 37-29 lead following a White layup and an Ian Miller jumper in transition, which came after Brogdon couldn't handle a pass from Evans. In that stretch, Virginia went almost six minutes without scoring and committed five turnovers.
"I think everybody was frustrated with how we were playing," said Evans, who had eight points and five assists.
FSU took a 42-29 lead, its biggest of the game, on a White dunk before Virginia reeled off baskets on seven consecutive possessions as part of a 14-0 run to take a 45-44 lead.
"Shooting's a funny thing," Bennett said. "You never know when you're going to start hitting some."
U.Va.'s spurt was highlighted by Evans, who scored six of the points.
FSU, though, answered with a 5-0 run to take a 49-45 lead with 3:36 remaining.
When asked about Virginia's uneven offensive performance, Harris said: "That's just basketball."
"Sometimes that happens," he added. "Sometimes you're hitting everything, and then sometimes you have an off night."
But usually not all within the same game.
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