Jamir Watkins may not have had the most productive Florida State debut last week, at least in the scoring column.

But the VCU transfer's second game as a Seminole Monday night was quite an announcement of his arrival.

After scoring two points in last Friday's win over Kennesaw State, Watkins led the Seminoles (2-0) with 19 points in Monday's runaway 94-67 win over Central Michigan (0-3) in front of 4,953 fans at the Tucker Civic Center in the campus-game opening round of the 2023 Sunshine Slam.

Watkins -- who finished just shy of his career-high of 22 points set at VCU -- also added six rebounds (four defensive, two offensive), four steals and two assists while making all four of his two-point shots and two of his four threes. Essentially, Watkins did it all for the Seminoles Monday night.

"I feel like it was a really good (shooting) bounceback," Watkins said after the win. "I just tried to come into the game with a clear mind, forget about last game because I can't do anything about it."

Monday's game was one that that was trending heavily in the Seminoles' favor from the opening minutes. FSU scored the first seven points and led by double-digits for the final 35:44 of the game, never especially threatened at any point.

A large part of that was the Seminoles' disruptive defense early on. After FSU forced 17 turnovers in its season-opening win vs. Kennesaw State, the Seminoles forced eight turnovers in the opening eight minutes and 13 turnovers in the first half against the Chippewas while CMU made just 11 first-half field goals.

Central Michigan finished the game with 21 turnovers. However, the Chippewas also shot 52.3% from the floor and wrangled nine offensive rebounds, showing it wasn't a perfect defensive night from the Seminoles by any means.

"From a defensive standpoint, we have our moments where we are excelling in certain areas. Stopping penetration is not one of them. That's an area of our defense that we've got to get better in," FSU head coach Leonard Hamilton said after the win. "Overall, I'm pleased with the progress, but we still have a lot of work to do. This team has potential to, I think, be a good basketball team."

Watkins was one of Seminolesixs to score in double-digits in the win. Darin Green Jr. added 16 points, giving him 34 points in the first two games of the season. Georgetown transfer Josh Nickelberry had 12 points, Baba Miller scored 11 points and Cameron Corhen and Cam'Ron Fletcher each tallied 10 points.

Much of FSU's success came from outside the arc, with the Seminoles making 12 of their 26 three-point attempts (46.2%). Six different FSU players made at least one three, led by Green who was 4 of 6 from three.

The Seminoles spread the ball around well, assisting on 23 of their 35 made baskets vs. CMU. It was also a vintage depth performance from the Seminoles, who had 36 bench points compared to 20 for CMU.

Up Next

Coming up next for the Seminoles is their first real test of the season. FSU travels later this week to take on rival Florida (1-1) in Gainesville Friday at 7 p.m. on SEC Network.

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