Florida State Beats Tennessee Martin 89-61
TALLAHASSEE (AP) — Ian Miller's perfect night was more than enough to pace a balancedFlorida State attack.
Miller, a senior guard, overcame his injuries and came off the bench to score 13 of his career-high 20 points in the first half, finishing 5 of 5 from the floor and 7 of 7 from the free-throw line, as FloridaState defeated Tennessee-Martin 89-61 on Sunday.
"I love coming off the bench," Miller said. "You get a chance to see what the other team is doing, see their weaknesses and their gaps in the offense. It makes it easy for me to be a playmaker and get in those gaps, see what's going on. When I get in the game, it's easy to attack."
Aaron Thomas scored a career-high 19 points and had six steals, while Okaro White added 17 points, four rebounds and two blocks for the Seminoles (3-0).
Coach Leonard Hamilton notched his 400th career win - and 200th at Florida State - in a victory over his alma mater. Hamilton's total would be higher, but the Seminoles were forced to vacate 22 wins as part of an academic cheating scandal in 2006-07.
"It's a business day," Hamilton said. "I don't get caught up in all the nostalgia that some people get caught up with."
The Skyhawks (1-4) suffered at the hands of Florida State's defense, which forced Tennessee Martin into 19 turnovers. Myles Taylor scored 17 points and six rebounds and Javier Martinez had 13 points on 6 of 7 shooting and added seven rebounds.
"(Martinez) usually gets good looks, clean looks right at the rim, but he usually misses them," Tennessee Martin coach Jason James said. "Today his hands were ready, he was able to score a little bit. I thought he did a good job."
Tennessee Martin led 12-11 with 11:31 to halftime. But Miller put Florida State ahead with a layup at 11:07 and the Seminoles finished the second half on a 30-9 run to pull ahead 41-23 at the half.
"I thought we picked it up in the latter part of the first half and had some good runs offensively and defensively," Hamilton said.
And Florida State didn't let up in the second half, knocking down 12 of 18 shots (66.7 percent) from the floor.
Florida State shot 27 of 46 (58.7 percent) from the floor in the game. The Seminoles also made 5 of 11 (45.5 percent) of their three-pointers, including 3 of 3 from Miller.
Miller had just scored 18 points in a win over Central Florida. But he topped that with 20 points on Sunday, adding five assists.
Tennessee Martin struggled early, making just 10 of 33 (30.3 percent) shots in the first half. The Skyhawks tried to rally by making 3-pointers in the second half, but made just 2 of 12 shots from beyond the arc. They made 4 of 21 3-pointers in the game.
"I thought our guys did a good job of battling," James said. "That was our thing coming into the game: compete and execute. I thought we competed but I didn't think we executed well."
Florida State is off to a strong start, surpassing the 80-point mark in all three of its games. The Seminoles have won each of their games by double figures, including a 24-point win over Jacksonville and a 12-point win at Central Florida.
"We've gotten off to a pretty good start," Hamilton said. "Most of our kids have improved individually. The challenge for us now is to get a little more cohesive on the offensive end and not have so many dry spells."
The Seminoles have opened 3-0 without last season's starting center, Kiel Turpin. Hamilton said he expects Turpin to play when the team travels to the Puerto Rico Tip-off on Thursday.
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