SOUTH BEND, Ind. -- Notre Dame junior power forward Bonzie Colson did it again.

Coming off a big effort against Wake Forest four nights earlier, Colson scored a career-high 33 points with 13 rebounds as the Fighting Irish ran past No. 14 Florida State 84-72 at Purcell Pavilion on Saturday.

"I'm just trying to play the hardest I can on both sides of the floor," Colson said with a semi-shrug. "My teammates give me confidence to do that. It's a good feeling right now.

"We stayed together."

Notre Dame (19-7, 8-5 ACC) improved to 2-6 against ranked teams. The Irish had lost their previous four.

Terance Mann scored 15 for Florida State (21-5, 9-4).

Notre Dame led by as many as 20. The Seminoles, who had won their previous three league games by an average of 30 points, led by as many as two and led for all of 100 seconds.

The home team busted this one open with a big burst to start the second half. Up by nine, Notre Dame stretched its lead to double digits in less than three minutes. Colson capped a 7-0 run that bumped the Irish advantage to 17 when he rebounded Steve Vasturia's missed 3-pointer from the corner with a bucket.

That gave him his 1,000 career point and 10th rebound for his league-leading 16th double-double.

Florida State did as it pleased around the basket. The Seminoles scored a whopping 54 points in the paint. But the visitors couldn't get out of their way at the free throw line. Florida State connected on three of its first 13 before finishing 7 for 22.

"Our effort at free throw did not give us a chance to be successful," Seminoles coach Leonard Hamilton said.

Notre Dame, outrebounded the previous five ACC games, finished with a 41-34 rebounding advantage while working with a small lineup of four guards and one big man -- Colson -- which forced Hamilton to counter by going away from his usual size along the front line.

"You've got to give them credit for having a great scheme, creating a great system to spread the floor and not allow us to pressure them," Hamilton said. "They kept the floor spaced."

Small ball just was better.

"We executed really well today," said point guard Matt Farrell, who had 15 points, nine assists and five rebounds. "We wanted to be in attack mode right from the jump."

As high energy a first half as the Irish (and their fans) have had all year saw the home team three times push out to double-digit leads. Notre Dame led by as many as 11 in the first 20 minutes, and took a nine-point lead at the break.

It marked the first time in six games, since a home game against Syracuse three weeks earlier, that Notre Dame led at intermission.

Colson led the Irish with 13 points. Farrell added 11.

Jonathan Isaac was scoreless in the first half. Isaac returned with the first Florida State bucket of the second half but got only one more the rest of the way.

The Irish needed a big effort in this one. They got it.

"It's huge," said sophomore guard Rex Pflueger. "We're clicking at the right time going into this final stretch of ACC play."

NOTES: Florida State was a No. 2 (6th overall) in the NCAA's first bracket projection of the Top 16 teams released early Saturday afternoon. That would be the highest seed in school history. The Seminoles have three times been a 3 seed, the last in 2012. That's also the last time Florida State was in the NCAA Tournament. ... Florida State athletic director Stan Wilcox was a member of the only Irish men's basketball team to advance to the Final Four in 1978. ... The Seminoles fell a half-game behind North Carolina for first place in the ACC. ... Saturday's game opened a stretch of four of five league games on the road for the Seminoles, who were 2-3. ... After starting the same lineup for the first 23 games, the Irish have fielded a different one in each of the last three. ... After playing four games in 11 days, the Irish are in a stretch of three games over the next 18. ... Louisville was the only ranked team Notre Dame had beaten prior to Saturday. ... Saturday capped a run of three league games in seven days for both teams.