FSU Basketball Controls Western Carolina, 91-57

Florida State moves to 7-1 after this dominant showing against Western Carolina

Austin Veazey | 3 Hours Ago

Tallahassee, Florida - Florida State basketball forward Malique Ewin against the Western Carolina Catamounts (Nov 26, 2024) / Florida State Seminoles Athletics

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Florida State returned home to play after a successful weekend in Uncasville, Connecticut, to play their third game in five days against the Western Carolina Catamounts. WCU isn't a very good team, but they had a week off, love to shoot the three, and it's the last game before Thanksgiving break. A lot of teams would come out a little sloppy and struggle to get going.

That was not the case for FSU, as Malique Ewin scored ten points in the first few minutes to give the Seminoles a 12-3 lead by the first media timeout. It took a few minutes for the rest of the offense to warm up, starting 1/6 from three, but the defense started hot, never allowing WCU to get going from deep in the first half.

Western Carolina kept firing away early, getting the lead down to seven with about ten minutes remaining in the first half after Ice Emery hit a three. That's when FSU's offense started to wake up.

A 9-0 run by the Seminoles around the third media timeout pushed the lead to 17, then after just one WCU bucket, FSU went on a 12-0 run fueled by threes to break the lead up to 26 before halftime. A banked-in three-pointer by Justin Thomas put the 'Noles up 49-26 at the break.

How bout this to end the half? #Noles pic.twitter.com/e8B7rFbY0o
— Austin Veazey (@EasyVeazeyNG) November 27, 2024

The good thing about that lead was it was mostly the other guys scoring. Bostyn Holt had nine first-half points on 4/4 shooting, Chandler Jackson had six, and 10 of the 11 Seminoles who had checked into the game had scored. Jamir Watkins had just six points on two three-pointers, letting everyone else operate, but he did a great job of creating opportunities for others with three assists.

Western Carolina briefly started to chip away in the second half, getting the lead down to 18 in the first few minutes of the half, but FSU did a good job of responding and pushing the lead back to 23 a few minutes later.

Once the lead was back up over 20 for FSU, it was smooth sailing the rest of the way, pushing the lead to as large as 34 and eventually winning 91-57. It's refreshing to see the Seminoles beat a bad team how they should. Florida State is now 7-1 on the season.

Malique Ewin led FSU early with 12 points, ten of those coming in the first four minutes. He had a sloppy second half and had four turnovers for the game, something they'll want to clean up. Jamir Watkins had 14 points, four assists, and three rebounds, shooting 4/6 from three-point range. Daquan Davis had a career-high 19 points, 16 coming in the second half. This was just an all-around game for everyone, with ten Seminoles scoring at least four points.

What I loved is that FSU knew Western Carolina wanted to shoot threes and held them to 8/36 (22.2%) shooting from behind the arc. We've seen teams light FSU up from three in the past, even when the team knew that's what the goal was, but this team has done a tremendous job of defending behind the arc so far. And the defense still did its normal thing by forcing 19 turnovers.

Here are three takeaways from Tuesday's win.

1. This Team's Energy is Infectious

For what this team may lack in talent or experience, they make up for with energy. Everyone who plays is giving 110% effort, working to get deflections, blocks, and recover out to shooters on defense. Leonard Hamilton and his staff did a great job of identifying players who want to work, and this team works harder than any of FSU's teams in the last few years.

2. Is the Three-Point Shooting Real?

Florida State struggled from three in their first three games of the season but had been shooting over 38% in the four games since. Coach Hamilton swears this is a good three-point shooting team, but it hadn't been a big enough sample to tell yet. They shot 5/12 from three in the first half on their way to 9/21 (42.9%) for the game. If this shooting carries over to the LSU game next week, that would be a great sign. But for now, I'm cautiously optimistic.

3. This is an Unselfish Team

Talk about something we haven't been able to say about recent Florida State teams... This year's team is really unselfish. Guys are willing passers and want to open up better shot opportunities for others, but they're not so unselfish to the point they're passing up good shots. It's been a good balance so far. Whether they can carry this into games against better competition will be important. The turnovers in this game were a little too high, but I imagine they'll work to get those corrected.

Florida State has a week off before traveling to Baton Rouge next Tuesday to play LSU for the ACC/SEC Challenge.

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