Game Review: FSU 78 - Temple 69


    The game got a little close at the end, but the Noles prevail for their second straight victory. Temple has players that are extremely dangerous if overlooked, like Jamal Mashburn Jr, but FSU handled their business and held a top 10 scorer to 20 points on 6-15 shooting from the floor, only 1-4 from deep.

    Offensively, FSU dominated the paint (40 to 30) and converted on threes at a more effective rate than we have seen so far this season. At one point, the Seminoles were shooting a red hot 60% from deep, but cooled off and finished the game at 36.8%. Of the eleven players that saw minutes in tonight's game, ten scored. Hamilton loves to use deep rotations, and this team is beginning to prove that it has guys that can contribute. The second unit of Deng, Thomas, Davis, Maluk, and Swinton have served key roles in the early successes of this young season. These guys get into the game and play with high motors that many of the teams FSU has played can't handle with their second unit. They don't always light up the box score (the bench combined for 25 points tonight), but they contribute in ways other than scoring that are so crucial. 

    Malique Ewin scored a new season high 15 points and was one rebound away from a double-double. What seems to have been a missing link in this FSU team was a dominant presence inside. Ewin has been adjusting to playing at a high-level D1 school and tonight may serve as his coming out party. Ewin was playing with a lot of energy and running the floor which lead to easy dunks and layups like this one.


 
    If he can continue to play at this level like he did tonight, FSU will take a huge step in being a real competitor this season.

    Defensively, it was more of the same for FSU. Their size and length caused countless problems for the Owls and lead to 9 FSU steals. Freshman guard, Daquan Davis lead the team with 5 steals. The Noles protected their own paint as well, finishing with six blocks as a team (Bol Bowen had three by himself).   The Noles have struggled rebounding the basketball this season, but won the battle today 39 to 34. To take another step in the right direction, the Seminoles need to start asserting themselves more on the glass, especially playing lower level competition. The Temple Owls came into this game shooting 41.3% from deep. The Seminoles again displayed strong perimeter pressure and forced Temple to shoot just 2-13 (15%) from downtown. 

    We're six games into the season and I can say that I am pleasantly surprised with this team. They have gone into every game with great attitudes and high energy, something Coach Hamilton said he saw a lot of in the preseason. There has been game to game improvement in almost every contest FSU has played, which is so encouraging with conference play right around the corner. 

    The Seminoles will take on the Minutemen of UMASS this Sunday in CT to end their weekend.






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