Leonard Hamilton has spoken a few times this season about his confidence in the shooting ability of this year's Florida State team even if the results hadn't yet backed it up.

The first half of their opening game in the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame Tip-Off in Uncasville, Conn. proved Hamilton may be onto something. Then the second half showed this team may still be subject to some hot and cold shooting stretches.

Despite that shooting fall-off after halftime, FSU (5-1) played well enough in the second half to come away with a 78-69 win over Temple (3-2) at Mohegan Sun Arena Friday night.

After FSU missed three of its first four three-pointers, the Seminoles rattled off five straight three-pointers, helping turn an early seven-point deficit into a six-point halftime lead. FSU finished the first half 6 of 10 (60%) from three-point range and 57.7% from the floor.

In the second half, FSU was just 1 of 9 (11.1%) from outside the arc. That resulted in a 36.8% three-point percentage in the win.

After finishing the first half strongly, the Seminoles did well to keep the Owls at arm's length for the entirety of the second half. Temple never managed to cut the FSU lead to less than six points in the second half.

With the win Friday night, FSU is 5-1 for the first time since the 2021-22 season.

Jamir Watkins is always going to be the heartbeat of this FSU basketball team. And he certainly was in the win over Temple, amassing a team-high 19 points.

But a big part of the Seminoles' success early this season is because so many new faces have hit the ground running stepping into significant roles in the rotation.

Junior-college forward transfer Malique Ewin sat some due to foul trouble in Friday's game, but still managed to score 15 points (his third straight game in double figures) and nab five rebounds, both season highs. He had four of the team's 13 offensive rebounds in the win which set up 16 second-chance points.

Freshman point guard Daquan Davis has quickly adapted to this level of play and become quite the type of stat-sheet stuffer that Hamilton so loves to have on his team. He had eight points, five rebounds, three assists and three steals in the win.

Hampton transfer Jerry Deng added seven points with a pair of three-pointers and three rebounds. UTSA transfer Justin Thomas had five points, two assists and two steals. South Dakota transfer Bostyn Holt had only two points but tallied six rebounds, second on the team behind only Ewin.

Those are the type of complementary performances FSU is going to need from its role players if it is going to maximize its potential.

It's far enough into the season now to safely say that defensive intensity is going to be one of the trademarks of this year's FSU squad.

Once again, the Seminoles' length and pressure badly affected their opponent's offense in their opening game of the preseason tournament.

Temple actually didn't commit many turnovers (14) relative to the first few FSU opponents this season. However, the Seminoles still managed to tally nine steals and six blocks vs. Temple Friday night, turning many of those live-ball turnovers into 15 fastbreak points.

Taylor Bol Bowen tied his career high with a team-high three blocks to go along with seven points and three rebounds.

More than forcing turnovers, FSU more simply played sound defense in Friday's win. The Owls shot just 39.3% from the floor vs. FSU and were 5 of 21 (23.8%) from three-point range.

Temple standout and NBA legacy Jamal Mashburn Jr., who entered Friday averaging 23.5 points per game, scored 20 points in a losing effort. However, he was a fairly inefficient 6 of 15 shooting (40%) with seven of his points coming at the free-throw line.

FSU gets an off day Saturday before playing one more game at the Mohegan Sun Sunday. The Seminoles will face UMass (1-3) at 3:30 p.m. with the game broadcast on ESPN2.