The offense is still a work in progress, but for most of Sunday evening's game against Loyola-Marymount the Florida State defense was in midseason form.

The Seminoles (3-1) swarmed all over the Lions, holding them to 17 first-half points and forcing 24 turnovers overall on their way to a 73-45 victory in the first round of the Jacksonville Classic.

They will play on Monday night in the championship game against the winner of Sunday night's showdown between SMU and Missouri.

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BOX SCORE: FSU 73, Loyola-Marymount 45

The game was close for the first half of the first half, but then the Seminoles ramped up the defense and took control of the game.

Florida State trailed 14-13 with 9:40 left in the first half before finishing on an 18-4 run.

Loyola just made one basket from the floor during that stretch, and the Seminoles took a 32-17 lead into the locker room.

The advantage never dipped below 13 in the second half and was right around 20 for the remainder of the game.

It was an impressive effort for the Seminoles, who were only a 6.5-point favorite heading into the matchup.

Freshman Matthew Cleveland led the way for FSU, scoring 13 points on 6 of 8 shooting from the floor. Malik Osborne and Tanor Ngom, getting his most extensive action of the season, both scored 10.

In all, 14 different Seminoles played, 10 different Seminoles scored, and nobody was on the floor for more than 24 minutes.

Florida State shot 51 percent from the floor and held Loyola to just 36.4 percent.

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