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Road Warrior Seminoles Manhandle Cavaliers

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By COREY CLARK

The Tallahassee Democrat

Published: January 25, 2009

CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA. - It's not supposed to be that easy. Not in the ACC.

But the Florida State Seminoles went on the road Saturday afternoon and manhandled the Virginia Cavaliers from the opening tip to the final buzzer in a resounding 73-62 victory at John Paul Jones Arena.

FSU, which improved to 16-4 overall and 3-2 in the conference, never trailed in the contest and had a double-digit lead for the final 32 minutes.

"We still have a lot of learning and growing up to do, but I thought today we really took a step in the right direction," FSU coach Leonard Hamilton said. "For the first time this year, I thought everybody that played was focused.

"It was a team effort. I thought the energy was there from everyone that went into the game. We didn't have anyone who took any possessions off."

Senior guard Toney Douglas once again led the Seminoles offensively, scoring a team-high 21 points and dishing out a team-high five assists.

But on Saturday, FSU got contributions from practically the entire team. All 10 players that entered the game for Hamilton hit at least one shot, and nine players finished with at least five points.

"I think that's the way it's supposed to be," said freshman guard Deividas Dulkys, who hit two 3-pointers in the first half to help FSU extend the lead. "Because we're a team and we have guys that are capable of scoring any given day."

The Seminoles did commit 22 turnovers against the Cavaliers, including 13 in the first half. But those miscues were offset by the way FSU defended Virginia in the first 20 minutes.

The hosts hit just three shots from the floor in the first half and went into intermission trailing 30-16. The Cavaliers had a stretch of over 12 minutes where they didn't make a field goal.

At one point, they were 1-for-19 from the floor.

"The way Florida State plays basketball, they systematically and methodically wear you down," Virginia coach Dave Leitao said. "I thought they wore us down physically and mentally, especially there in the first half."

Said Hamilton: "They had some good shots that normally go down for them that just didn't fall. Sometimes you have a game, where even though you have good looks, they don't fall. ... But I did think we did a good job defending them."

Despite the Cavaliers going on a 6-0 run to end the first half, they never really threatened the Seminoles' lead. The closest they came to making a game of it on Saturday was when Jamil Tucker stole the ball from Douglas in the backcourt and threw down a dunk to cut the FSU lead to 44-31 at the 13:09 mark.

But the senior from Jonesboro, Ga., answered 19 seconds later - knocking down a 3-pointer while being fouled. Douglas' four-point play extended the lead back to 17 and sucked the life out of the crowd, which didn't have much to cheer about all afternoon.

Virginia (7-9, 1-4) scored the final four points of the game to cut the final margin to 11, but after Douglas' four-point play, the Seminoles were never in danger in the second half.

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