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FSU starts slow, then wins big

Annoyed with starters, Seminoles coach Steve Robinson gets a spark from young backups.

By ALEX ABRAMS
© St. Petersburg Times,
published November 21, 2001

TALLAHASSEE -- In a season-opening loss to No. 6 Florida on Friday, Florida State struggled offensively, making only 12 shots and scoring 47 points.

Four days later and facing an undersized Savannah State team, the Seminoles put up 51 points in the second half en route to a 93-41 win Tuesday in the Leon-County Civic Center.

"For our team, I think that was certainly much needed," FSU coach Steve Robinson said. "The thing I was real impressed with was our guys played hard for the entire game. Certainly, it would have been very easy to kind of back up a little bit and not give the kind of energy in the first half."

The 52-point win tied for 10th in school history for the largest margin of victory, the most lopsided since FSU (1-1) defeated UNC-Asheville 107-54 on Jan. 2, 1992.

FSU got big performances from several newcomers. Freshman small forward Anthony Richardson, a former high school McDonald's All-American playing in his first home game, had a team-high 12 points, followed by 11 from freshman power forward Adam Waleskowski.

"(The freshmen) are playing great basketball," starting point guard Delvon Arrington said. "They keep playing like this, they're going to take our spots. Like I said, that's a good thing for players to come off the bench and spark the team."

A spark is what the Seminoles needed with 15:38 remaining in the first half. Robinson, annoyed with only a 2-0 lead, replaced his starters with five younger backups. The move led to a 40-17 run to end the first half.

"We were playing hard from the start, we just didn't have some shots go down for us," Robinson said. "I've never been one of those guys to hesitate with this group, and I won't hesitate with this group, to go to the bench and put other guys in the game. What does that do? It jump-starts our guys again."

Taking advantage of lackadaisical defense, FSU shot 18-for-33 in the first half and finished at 51.5 percent. The team shot 26 percent against the Gators.

Sophomore power forward Michael Joiner had 10 points and seven rebounds, while Arrington added eight points, seven assists and five rebounds. Savannah State power forward Armond Burnett had a game-high 14 points and seven rebounds.

FSU guard Andrew Wilson sat out with a sprained ligament in his right knee. The sophomore is expected to miss 2-3 weeks.

FSU hosts Elon College on Friday.

SAVANNAH ST (0-2): Payton 1-7 2-3 4, Burnett 4-13, 6-8 14, Fisher 0-2 0-0 0, Spann 0-3 0-0 0, T. Williams 1-8 2-2 4, Smalls 1-6 0-0 3, Lowe 2-13 0-0 6, Reddick 2-4 0-1 4, L. Williams 2-3 0-0 4, Boyd 2-4 0-0 4. Totals 15-63 10-14 41.

FLORIDA ST (1-1): Joiner 4-6 0-0 10, A. Dixon 4-8 0-0 10, N. Dixon 2-7 4-9 8, Arrington 2-4 2-2 8, Cummings 4-8 2-5 10, Bracy 4-9 0-0 10, Lowery 1-2 0-0 3, Harvey 2-3 1-2 5, Haywood 0-0 0-0 0, Mathews 1-3 2-2 4, Krieg 0-0 0-0 0, Anderson 1-1 0-0 2, Waleskowski 5-8 1-2 11, Richardson 4-7 1-2 12. Totals 34-66 13-24 93.

Halftime -- Florida St 42, Savannah St 17. 3-point goals-Savannah St 1-14 (Smalls 1-3, Payton 0-3, Spann 0-1, Williams 0-2, Lowe 0-2, L. Williams 0-1, Boyd 0-2.) Florida St 12-24 (Richardson 3-5, Joiner 2-2, A. Dixon 2-4, Arrington 2-4, Bracy 2-5, Lowery 1-2, Cummings 0-2.) Fouled out -- Fisher. Rebounds -- Savannah St 35 (Burnett 7), Florida St 51 (N. Dixon 9). Assists-Savannah St 6 (T. Williams 2), Florida St 20 (Arrington 7).

Total fouls -- Savannah St 22, Florida St 15.

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