FSU routs LCC in exhibition opener
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Senior guard Toney Douglas led all scorers with 20 points in a 101-43 exhibition victory for Florida State over LCC International University on Wednesday night at the Donald L. Tucker Center. While the Lithuanian-based team didn't present much of a challenge, it did give a chance for Leonard Hamilton to evaluate his club against another opponent.
"That was what I was looking for, an attempt to run our secondary breaks, our primary break," Hamilton said. "We wanted to get out and run, to get deflections, score as much as we could out of transition, but if we didn't have transition opportunities then we wanted to set up, execute, and take good shots. For the most part, I thought we did."
Douglas was one of six Seminoles who scored in double figures. He was joined by sophomore Jordan Demercy and freshman Xavier Gibson who scored 14 points, junior Ryan Reid and Chris Singleton with 11 points each and freshman Deividas Dulkys with 10.
Offensively, the Seminoles turned it over 18 times but also dished out 23 assists, with nine of those coming from freshman guard Luke Loucks, on 43 made baskets. Redshirt freshman Solomon Alabi, who missed most of his freshman season with an injured leg, scored nine points and added six rebounds in 19 minutes as a starter.
In all, five true freshmen played in the game, each scoring on the evening, and combined for 42 points and 20 rebounds. It was truly a team effort for the Seminoles.
"Everybody is on one page, and that is to play hard, and play to each other," Douglas said. "The leaders are leading and they are following. That is the main focus."
On the defensive end, the Seminoles generated 43 points off of 37 turnovers and 25 steals against the Lithuanian based team. The defensive effort was led by Douglas and Singleton who each had six steals.
"We got a lot of easy buckets," Demercy said. "We just tried to push the tempo and get them out of their comfort zone."
All 10 players who earned playing time for the Seminoles scored on the evening. As a team, the Seminoles shot 55.1 percent from the field and 36.0 percent from deep. They were only able to manage to shoot 50 percent from the free throw line.
"We saw a lot of good things that we liked," Hamilton said. "We moved the ball, played very unselfish. At times we executed our defensive fundamentals in terms of being in our stances and restricting gaps, getting deflections.
"Obviously, they turned the ball over too many times," he added. "Thought there were some times where we just didn't get out and contest some shots, but for the most part, I just think that with 10 days of practice with as young as we are, we showed that we are making some progress."
Florida State plays its second of two exhibition games against Florida Tech on Nov. 11 at the Tucker Center.
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