Loucks career-high leads Noles over Canes
Advertisement
Highlights: Florida State vs. MiamiClick Here to view this Link.
Florida State defeated Miami 71-65 behind a career-high 19 points from guard Luke Loucks.
In his 25 minutes of playing time off the bench, Loucks had five rebounds and three assists in addition to his scoring output. He said that he felt it would be a good night for him prior to tip-off after a conversation between him and head coach Leonard Hamilton.
"Coach Hamilton just looked at me and said we need a good one out of you tonight, just be aggressive and play within yourself," Loucks said. "That is just what I tried to do from the start."
Loucks, who had only scored 19 total points in his previous eight ACC games, said it felt good to have a breakout game and double his total scoring output in conference play.
"It was kind of good just to get the monkey off my back tonight. I was shooting with confidence beforehand, but they just weren't falling," Loucks said. "Tonight, I don't know, something just clicked and they started falling."
The Seminoles (17-6, 5-4 ACC) led by just one at the half, 32-31, but were able to stretch the lead to as many as 12 points in the second half.
Loucks was joined in double digits by Chris Singleton who finished with 10 points. Solomon Alabi and Michael Snaer contributed nine points each. Xavier Gibson also contributed eight points off the bench.
"I think it is interesting that we keep having to have different guys step up, in at least the last couple of games and make major contributions," Hamilton said. "I think we are maturing to some degree."
Snaer earned his first career start, replacing the slumping Deividas Dulkys in the starting lineup.
"It is obvious that Dulkys is our guy and I thought he was pressing a little bit," Hamilton said. "We just wanted to take some pressure off him. It doesn't matter who is starting in our system, but he (Dulkys) has been trying so hard to contribute."
As for Snaer, he was just happy to get the opportunity and to make a contribution from the start.
"I know the next start is going to be a little different," Snaer said. "I'm going to get more comfortable. That's all it's about right now."
James Dews led Miami (16-7, 2-7 ACC) with 15 points in the loss. Dwayne Collins also had 11 points for Frank Haith's team.
Florida State will now travel to Clemson to face the Tigers on Wednesday night.
Talk about it on the Tribal Council or the Hoops Message Board.