Albany Herald

Auburn Tigers guard Josh Wallace drives past Florida State Seminoles guard Devon Bookert (1) during the second half Wednesday's game.

AUBURN, Ala. — Frankie Sullivan scored 24 points and Allen Payne added a career-high 17 as Auburn defeated Florida State 78-72 in the Tigers’ nonconference finale Wednesday night.

Auburn (6-7) trailed by as many as 12 points in the first half before outscoring the Seminoles (8-5) 21-10 down the back end of the first half to cut the Florida State lead to 36-35 by halftime.

Sullivan scored 18 of his 24 points in the first half, keeping the Tigers alive as they battled back from the early deficit. Payne scored nine points in the second half for Auburn as the Tigers overtook the lead.

Florida State’s Michael Snaer recorded a double-double in the losing effort, scoring 18 points and pulling down 12 rebounds. Sophomore guard Terry Whisnant added another 16 points for the Seminoles.

The Auburn victory avenged an 85-56 loss to Florida State in Tallahassee last season.

After charging back to cut the lead to one at halftime, Auburn overtook the lead nearly 2 minutes into the second half when a Rob Chubb lay-in put Auburn up 42-40, giving the Tigers their first lead since Auburn was up 8-7 nearly 5 minutes into the game.

Chubb finished with eight points and 10 rebounds for the Tigers. Noel Johnson scored all nine of his points in the second half as Auburn pulled away.

Florida State’s Aaron Thomas cut the Auburn lead to seven with 2:58 to play in the game, but the Tigers went 12 of 20 from the free-throw line in the last 2:01 of the game to seal the win.

Georgia Tech pulls away from Chattanooga 74-58

ATLANTA — Marcus Georges-Hunt scored 16 points, fellow freshman Robert Carter Jr. had his third double-double and Georgia Tech defeated Chattanooga 74-58 for its sixth straight victory.

Carter had 13 points and a career-best 12 rebounds as the Yellow Jackets (10-2) pulled away in the second half after a sluggish start. Mfon Udofia scored 14 points for Georgia Tech, which made 17 of 28 second-half shots and outrebounded Chattanooga 42-25 for the game.

The Yellow Jackets are 8-0 at their new McCamish Pavilion and open ACC play by hosting Miami on Saturday.

Farad Cobb and Z. Mason led Chattanooga (5-9) with 14 points. The Mocs led by seven points in the first half but allowed Georgia Tech 34 points in the paint during the game.

The Yellow Jackets broke the game open with a 16-6 second-half run, expanding a 40-33 lead with 4:20 gone to 56-39 with 8:30 remaining.

Kammeon Holsey had 10 points, Jason Morris scored nine and Daniel Miller contributed seven points, eight rebounds, four assists and three blocked shots.

Georgia Tech missed 12 of its first 16 shots and Chattanooga took a 17-10 lead on a basket by Cobb with 8:48 left in the first half. But the Yellow Jackets closed the half with an 18-6 run, taking a 28-23 at lead on Morris’ 3-pointer just before the buzzer.

Udofia had eight first-half points for Georgia Tech as both teams shot poorly. The Yellow Jackets were 10 of 29 and Chattanooga 9 of 28. Georgia Tech had 10 second-chance points to two for the Mocs.

The Yellow Jackets had defeated their previous three opponents (Alabama State, The Citadel and Furman) by an average of 30.3 points and held each under 50 points — the first time a Georgia Tech team had done that since the 1959-60 season.

The game at Georgia Tech was the first of four in a row away from home for Chattanooga. The Mocs are at Samford on Saturday and then continue Southern Conference play at The Citadel and College of Charleston next week.

In its previous games against schools from major conferences, Chattanooga lost at No. 6 Kansas 69-55 on Nov. 15 and at Louisiana State 80-67 on Dec. 11.

The Yellow Jackets’ two losses came at No. 11 Illinois and against California in the DirecTV Classic in Anaheim, Calif.