Florida State basketball (6-6) improved its record and ended a five-game losing streak by destroying the Mississippi State Valley Delta Devils (1-11) 96-49 on Friday night. The betting spread was -41.5, and FSU nearly covered that by halftime.
As we wrote in the preview, they are terrible, and if FSU didn’t have its way, Luke Loucks would have some problems on his hands. Is there anything to learn from this game? Not really, because FSU played all of its players, and everyone contributed and scored.
It’s probably safe to say that FSU would have taken another loss if it had played a good team. They shot 40 three-pointers, only making 32 percent. That’s still too many three-point shots at a low percentage. They shot 46 percent overall, but made 19 of 24 free throws. The latter is the second game in a row where they have been respectable compared to earlier in the season.
The biggest difference in the game was that FSU only had 10 turnovers, but generated 31 points off of 25 turnovers from Mississippi Valley State. That’s something that’s been missing in the five-game losing streak.
FSU won the battle on the board and had 16 fastbreak points and 38 in the paint. I’d like to see FSU shoot a better percentage from the floor against a team like this, but that’s what happens when you jack up that many three-pointers, and you’re not a great three-point shooting team.
It was good to see the guys get a win like that. They’ll host Jacksonville on Monday at 7 p.m. before entering ACC play after Christmas.