Florida State beat Southeastern University by a score of 117-76 in its final tune-up before the start of the regular season on Sunday.
After a slow start in the first half, the Seminoles went on a 23-14 run in the final eight minutes to take a 57-35 lead at halftime. The Seminoles shot 62 percent, compared to Southeastern’s 45 percent, but were markedly inefficient at the free throw line, shooting only 6-for-11.
Florida State was losing the battle of the boards at half by a margin of 18-17 and subsequently giving up 11 points on second chance opportunities to Southeastern. Despite this, the offense kept rolling and the Seminoles had a healthy lead at the break.
Much like last week against Lynn University, the Seminoles really started to pull away in the second half. With eight minutes to go in the game, FSU had already hit the 90-point mark while Southeastern had just gotten past 60. The Seminoles shot at a superb rate of 69 percent and held Southeastern to 39 percent. A stout defense continued to prevent any easy shots for Southeastern, and the scoring margin of 60-41 in the second half shows that.
FSU sophomore guard Xavier Rathan-Mayes continued to be a good ball distributor with 7 assists in the half — he would finish with 12. Seven different Seminoles scored in double-figures led by freshman Malik Beasley, who poured in 23 points on 9-for-15 shooting while sophomore Phil Cofer added 18. Dwayne Bacon scored 17 points while going 6-for-10 from the field.
Florida State was much more secure with the ball than it was in its last game. The Seminoles only had five turnovers compared to Southeastern’s 19 and capitalized much more with 27 points off of turnovers.
The team defense was aggressive and the offense continued its balance of scoring with 64 points in the paint. The real challenge will be translating these qualities into the tougher ACC games and finding a way around much more talented defenses. Rathan-Mayes has shown that he’s not just a scorer, which should bode well for this season since he was at times forced to carry the offense last season.
The home opener for the Seminoles is Sunday against Nicholls State at 3:00 P.M. eastern time.
Photo courtesy of Seminoles.com
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