December 5, 2006

Jim Lamar, Osceola
Warchant.com

DELAND, FL -- In a game that had all the makings of a classic letdown situation, the Florida State basketball team cruised to an 82-63 victory over Stetson on Tuesday night.

Just 48 hours after the Seminoles (6-2) knocked off then-No. 4 Florida, they hit the road to play in front of a near-capacity crowd that was eager to see an upset. But FSU showed quickly that it wasn't interested in seeing this game go to the wire and instead raced to a 22-point lead by halftime and never saw the game get closer than 16 the rest of the way.

"When you want to become a great team and have success, that's part of being successful ? learning how to win big games and then play the next game," FSU junior guard Jason Rich said.

The Seminoles certainly showed they were ready to play right from the start, and they had to battle through the noise created by 4,652 fans that marked the largest crowd in the 33-year history of the Edmunds Center.

FSU shook off the potential Florida hangover and sprinted to a quick 7-0 lead, but turnovers and a couple of defensive letdowns let the Hatters right back in the game. The Seminoles then broke away from a 10-10 game and sprinted to halftime with a 50-28 lead ? capped by a lay-up from sophomore guard Toney Douglas at the buzzer.

In building that halftime lead, the Seminoles had seven players score at least four points and recorded 11 assists to just seven turnovers.

"I thought we had fewer turnovers because we were making easier passes," FSU coach Leonard Hamilton said. "There were a couple of times where we got careless. I thought we tried to thread the needle a few times, but we did that far fewer than where we had been doing that. That's the direction we're trying to move in. We feel if we're going to be effective, we've got to create offense for each other. We're a pretty good shooting team and I thought we passed up some shots to make the second or third pass."

The extra passing showed up in the stats sheet. FSU had 18 assists and just 13 turnovers overall. Junior guard Ralph Mims, who is quietly turning in better and better efforts off the bench, had a team-high seven assists. Junior guard Isaiah Swann (four), Rich (three) and senior guard Jerel Allen (three) also had multiple assists.

"That's what the coaches have been stressing," Rich said. "We did a better job against Florida with that, even though it didn't necessarily show up in the stats. We did it tonight and hopefully that's something we can continue to do. When we move the ball, we're a good team."

The extra passes also led to a balanced scoring attack. Five FSU players, topped by Douglas with 16 points, scored in double figures. Sophomore forward Uche Echefu, sparked by an 8-of-10 showing from the free throw line, had 12 points. Senior forward Al Thornton, Rich and Mims each added 10 points.

Allen and Swann had nine points each.

The balance helped FSU avoid the post-Florida letdown that Hamilton was so concerned about before the game. He said he brought up the subject of playing with intensity with his players repeatedly before his game started.

"We're trying to address things very matter-of-factly," Hamilton said. "The challenge that we have is to not have the highs and lows. We need to get to a certain level and we need to either level off and stay there or get even better in our mental approach. We have talked about the process that we have to go through ? the routine that it takes for winners to go out and compete night in and night out. You have to be consistent with it and that eliminates you from having the highs and lows."

Scoring ?1st? ?2nd? ?Final? FSU 50 32 82 Stetson 28 35 63 VISITOR ??? Florida St. ??? (6-2) # Name Min Pos Pts FG m-a 3PT m-a FT m-a A RB o-t BL ST TO PF 23 Douglas, T 29 G 16 6-11 1-3 3-4 1 2-3 0 2 3 1 41 Echefu, U 17 F 12 2-3 0-1 8-10 0 1-2 0 0 0 3 12 Thornton, A 28 F 10 3-7 0-1 4-4 0 1-5 0 2 3 4 25 Rich, J 28 G 10 3-6 0-0 4-6 3 1-2 0 2 3 3 10 Mims, R 21 G 10 3-5 2-4 2-3 7 0-1 0 1 2 1 3 Swann, I 31 G 9 4-8 1-3 0-0 4 2-5 0 3 1 0 11 Allen, J 23 G 9 3-5 1-3 2-2 3 1-4 0 0 0 1 31 Hoff, B 1 G 2 1-2 0-0 0-0 0 0-0 0 0 0 0 33 Zitani, M 1 F 2 1-1 0-0 0-0 0 0-0 0 0 0 1 42 Reid, R 16 F 2 1-2 0-0 0-0 0 1-7 1 0 1 1 15 Breeden, C 5 F 0 0-1 0-0 0-0 0 1-1 0 0 0 5 Totals: 200 82 27-51 5-15 23-29 18 10-32 1 10 13 20 Percentages: .529 .333 .793 HOME ??? Stetson ??? (3-6) # Name Min Pos Pts FG m-a 3PT m-a FT m-a A RB o-t BL ST TO PF 14 Blair, G 27 F 15 3-4 0-0 9-11 2 2-6 0 1 4 4 1 McMillen, G 29 G 15 6-17 0-6 3-3 3 0-3 0 4 4 2 35 Okafor, C 24 C 9 4-4 1-1 0-0 0 3-6 0 0 1 2 21 Diaz, E 31 F 8 4-9 0-2 0-1 0 3-3 1 0 2 3 31 Thomas, K 21 G 8 3-10 2-5 0-0 3 0-1 0 1 1 5 4 Oliver, S 17 F 4 0-2 0-0 4-6 0 2-4 0 1 0 0 22 Lang, T 12 C 2 1-2 0-0 0-0 0 0-0 0 0 1 2 44 Hirst, J 8 F 2 1-2 0-0 0-0 0 1-1 0 0 0 5 2 Smith, A 12 G 0 0-2 0-2 0-0 1 0-1 0 0 3 3 3 Williams, B 11 G 0 0-1 0-1 0-0 1 0-1 0 0 0 1 15 Lohuis, M 8 G 0 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0-2 0 0 0 0 Totals: 200 63 22-53 3-17 16-21 10 13-30 1 7 16 27 Percentages: .415 .176 .762

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