FSU cruises to 86-41 exhibition win

Florida State put the finishing touches on its swift and seamless exhibition season, disposing of Georgia Southwestern 84-38 at the Donald L. Tucker Center on Monday night.

Looking more polished than they did in the exhibition opener against Indiana University-Pa. last week, the Seminoles shot 30-of-57 from the floor (52.6 percent) and forced 23 GSW turnovers. Florida State took a 45-19 halftime lead and never looked back. FSU had at least a 30-point lead for the final 19:09.

"Obviously you've got to be pleased that we were able to show some signs of improvement with our execution," FSU coach Leonard Hamilton said. "We had much better recognition of what we were trying to do at the beginning of the game on the offensive end."

After a half of mass rotations between the starting five (Luke Loucks, Michael Snaer, Okaro White, Xavier Gibson and Bernard James) and a set of reserves (Jeff Peterson, Deividas Dulkys, Terrance Shannon, Jon Kreft and freshman Terry Whisnant), Hamilton switched things up in the second half, mixing both the starters and backups. It didn't slow down the pace as FSU poured in 41 second-half points while GSW was held without a field goal for the final 6:16 of the contest.

Hamilton wasn't pleased with his team's nine second-half turnovers and it came up short on its goal of 22 post touches, getting just 19. He said that his team was improving but still had plenty of work to do before it opens the regular season against Jacksonville University at home on Friday night. Tipoff is set for 7 p.m.

"We have a few miscues here and there, but there's no reason for us to make those mental errors," Hamilton said. "And we're still making a few, which I'm sure most teams are. But with the experience we have, the issues that concern me are things we can control and we've got to keep pushing to be that well-oiled machine it takes to compete once we get into ACC play."

Snaer led all scorers with 15 points, shooting 6-of-10 from the field and 3-of-7 from three-point range. James netted 10 of his 14 points in the second half while Dulkys chipped in 10 points. The Seminoles tallied 38 points in the paint.

"It was a step forward, guys getting their wind, guys getting their rhythm," Snaer said. "Everybody's executing, trying to run plays, being unselfish. It's a beautiful sight, but hopefully we can keep that going against tougher teams, against Division I teams."

The only bad news for the Seminoles was that freshman forward Antwan Space broke a bone in his left foot in the exhibition opener last week and had surgery on Monday. Hamilton said that there is no timeline for Space's return.