TALLAHASSE, Fla.—Florida State head coach Leonard Hamilton had spent the past two days at ACC Media Day talking about the depth of his team.
It showed in a big way in Thursday night's 119-58 exhibition win over Southeastern.
Missing the services of six players, the Fire stuck with the Seminoles in the first six minutes of the first half, staying within seven (12-5) with 14:00 to play. FSU didn't take its first double-digit lead until the 9:05 mark of the first half on a dunk by junior Phil Cofer, who led all scorers with 20 points and added nine rebounds.
"I'm proud of our guys; they played hard and competed," said Southeastern head coach
R-Jay Barsh. "Florida State has a phenomenal team this year, we didn't expect to get pressed, but our guys really weathered the storm and took a lot of positives from this game."
With 5:51 left in the half,
Jase Miguez got the Fire back within 11 with a 3-pointer. In his collegiate debut, Miguez scored 19 points on 8-of-18 shooting.
"Jase is a phenomenal player, we knew he'd be able to score, and we're excited that he came out and did exactly what we asked him to," said Barsh.
However, the Seminoles went on a 21-2 run from that point on to take a 54-23 lead to the locker room.
The young FSU squad went into crowd-pleasing mode in the second half, getting three dunks in the first 4:12 as part of a 12-3 run, which gave the Seminoles a 40-point lead. In the second half alone, Florida State converted 13 dunks.
One of the big bright spots for Southeastern was the play of Harrison Hebert in the second half, going 6-of-13 from the field, and finishing with a team-high 20 points. He also added five rebounds and an assist in 39 minutes.
"Harry is a lights-out shooter and had to do other things tonight and shot himself out of an early slump," said Barsh.
Florida State finished the night 63% from the field, outrebounded the Fire 63-22, and outscored SEU 68-14 in the paint
"Tonight, we saw that we have guys we're confident in, and we'll be deep once we heal up," said Barsh of the experience.
The Fire will open up the regular season next Thursday against No. 11 Union as part of the Southern Challenge in Barbourville, Ky.
