No. 18 Florida State survived a tough test Monday night against Notre Dame, needing a late surge to beat the Fighting Irish 68-61 in Tallahassee, Fla.

Down for most of the second half, the Seminoles got a great game from reserve guard Devin Vassell, who finished with team highs of 13 points and seven rebounds, the latter a career high, as Florida State (22-6, 10-5 ACC bounced back two days after an 18-point road loss to then-No. 8 North Carolina.

The Seminoles have won nine of their past 10 games in their push for a top-four seed in the ACC tournament.

Florida State led 63-59 lead with 54 seconds to play after guard Trent Forrest made one of two free throws.

After Notre Dame forward John Mooney trimmed it to 63-61 with a huge dunk, Forrest went back to the line with 35.1 seconds remaining and hit both free throws to push the lead back to 65-61.

Notre Dame (13-15, 3-12) was led by D.J. Harvey with 18 points, followed by guard Prentiss Hubb with 17 points. Mooney added 14 points and a team-high eight rebounds.

The Seminoles has to scratch and claw to take a 33-33 tie into halftime, going on a 16-6 run after trailing 27-17 with about six minutes left.

Notre Dame came out of the locker room and went on a 12-4 run for a 45-37 lead early in the second half, but with just under eight minutes to go, the Seminoles used a small run of their own to draw to within 53-52.

Then with 6:35 left in the game, the Seminoles grabbed their first lead since early in the first half on a Vassell 3-pointer that made it 57-55.

Florida State center Christ Koumadje added 12 points and five rebounds, and forward Mfiondu Kabengele chipped in 10 points despite going 3 of 11 from the field.

The Seminoles outrebounded the Fighting Irish 40-26.

The game marked the first of three straight at home for Florida State, with a Saturday meeting against North Carolina State up next. The Irish play at Louisville on Sunday.

--Field Level Media