Florida State defeated Lynn University by a score of 114-68 in the first exhibition game of the season for the Seminoles at the Donald L. Tucker Center on Monday night.
A fairly large amount of hype centered around the newest additions to the team — namely 5-star small forward Dwayne Bacon and 4-star shooting guard Malik Beasley. A decent sized crowd witnessed Florida State domination from the first five minutes all the way to the very end with contributions from both seasoned veterans and newcomers.
The Seminoles jumped out to an early lead in the first half, amounting to a 58-29 score by halftime as FSU shot 59 percent from the field. By comparison, Lynn was only able to muster a 24 percent mark for total field goal percentage — lower than its 27 percent rate from deep.
Both forward Phil Cofer and guard Xavier Rathan-Mayes had 11 points in the first half before each finishing with 13.
Senior center Boris Bojanovsky led the team with 12 rebounds to go along with 10 points on the evening. Florida State forced Lynn to try and score outside the paint, as the Fighting Knights only had 10 points in the area and the Seminoles had 4 blocks to go along with it. Seven turnovers by Lynn led to 12 points for the Seminoles as they let their defensive pressure create opportunities for their offense.
The story was largely unchanged in the second half as Florida State reached 90 before Lynn could reach 50. Senior Devon Bookert scored 12 of his game-high 19 points in the half. Highlight plays were abundant with multiple dunks, alley-oops, and 3-pointers exciting the crowd. FSU stuck to its game plan and roared to a 114-68 finish with a final shooting percentage of 64. Lynn was unable to get anything going on either offense or defense.
Perhaps the key word for FSU on Monday night was “balance”. The Seminokes didn’t have to rely on one aspect of scoring to sustain them, as they had a fairly even split of points with 62 coming in the paint and the rest from outside and at the foul line.
While Lynn is not Division I competition, the freshmen were impressive. Forward Terance Mann finished with 15 points, 8 rebounds and 6 assists. Bacon led the freshmen with 16 points and Beasley added 10. They combined for 41 points and 19 rebounds along with 10 assists.
FSU’s next exhibition game is on November 9th as it will face Southeastern University at 7:00 P.M. eastern time. The 2015-16 opener is November 15th against Nicholls State at home.
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