by Bill from Tampa
The word to summarize Friday night’s game against Nicholls State is turnovers. Specifically turnovers caused by a ball hawking Florida State defense leading to an 81-58 blowout over the Colonels.
Led by five steals each for Toney Douglas and Ralph Mims, the Seminoles forced 27 turnovers with 19 coming in the second half.
For the game FSU had 18 thefts caused mostly by a four guard lineup in the second half of Mims, Douglas, Isaiah Swann, and Jason Rich. That lineup that included freshman Julian Vaughn who started the game came out in the second half and seemingly anticipated every pass by the Colonels.
What had been a close first half with FSU leading 42-35 quickly turned into a runaway in the second with the Seminoles dominating every aspect. Until after intermission, the Colonels just about matched every shot. Had it not been for Swann connecting on all five of his three point attempts it might have been closer or worse.
The Colonels definitely posed some challenges for Florida State as one coach said after the game although they started off shaky with turnovers on their first two possessions. Nicholls actually tied the game at 25 until FSU managed to get a bit of space on Ryan Reid’s layup on a nice pass from Douglas to end the first half.
But the second half was much different as FSU’s defense was all over the visitors from Louisiana creating three turnovers in first four Colonel possessions.
More importantly Florida State converted those opportunities into points scoring 37 points from those miscues.
Back to back layups by Uche Echefu stretched out the lead to twenty nine points, 75-46, with 7:47 to play. At that point it was only a matter of what the final margin would be.
That margin culminated with a three pointer from walk on Matt Zitani.
The Seminoles had four players in double figures. Rich led the way with 17 points followed by Swann’s 15. Douglas and Echefu both had 10.
Vaughn in his first start in his first college game did not disappoint. The freshman was 3 of 5 from the floor for 8 points pulling down 4 rebounds, three offensively. He added one assist with no turnovers.
Defensively the ‘Noles clamped down on the Colonels’ leading scorer Adonis Gray. After scoring 9 points in the first twenty minutes, Gray scored just two more in the final twenty.
The Seminoles return to action Monday night, hosting Georgia Southern in the first round of the Glen Wilkes tournament. Tip off is at 9:00 PM.
Comments? Questions? Kudos?