Florida State will look to proceed one in every of its higher begins in recent times whereas Temple will attempt to bounce again from its first loss when the groups meet Friday night time in Uncasville, Conn., as a part of the Naismith Basketball Corridor of Fame Tip-Off.
The Owls (3-1) received their first three video games over Sacred Coronary heart, Monmouth and Drexel earlier than dropping a 72-69 resolution final Friday at Boston School.
Jamal Mashburn Jr., who’s averaging a team-high 23.5 factors per sport, completed with 23 factors and 4 assists. Nonetheless, he missed a possible game-tying 3-pointer on the finish of the sport. Steve Settle III, who’s second with a 13.3 scoring common, tallied 10 of his 15 factors within the first half.
Mashburn, a fifth-year guard who transferred from New Mexico, has scored 20 or extra factors in every of the 4 video games to open the season, which is the second time he has achieved that feat in his profession.
“He is made massive photographs and is a good participant,” Temple coach Adam Fisher mentioned. “I might belief him with any shot within the sport.”
Ahead Jamir Watkins has been one of many key cogs behind the robust begin for the Seminoles (4-1), whose solely loss got here towards rival Florida final Friday. Watkins had a game-high 17 factors in a 79-61 win over Hofstra on Tuesday. He’s averaging 18.2 factors and 5.4 rebounds per sport, together with a 30-point effort the final time Florida State was on a impartial court docket in a 73-65 win over Rice on Nov. 9.
Florida State appears to be rediscovering the recipe for achievement underneath Leonard Hamilton, in his twenty third season in Tallahassee with eight appearances within the NCAA Match to his credit score. The Seminoles’ defensive play continues to frustrate opponents into quite a few turnovers (Hofstra made 20). They’re sharing the ball nicely as 10 Florida State gamers scored in that sport — 9 with 5 or extra factors. The Seminoles additionally have been sharp on the free-throw line, making 18 of 23 photographs.
“I assumed we performed aggressively and considerably disruptively,” Hamilton mentioned. “I assumed we might all the time be a free-throw-shooting crew and all the time thought we might be a 3-point-shooting crew. It reveals that a whole lot of that is psychological.”
–Discipline Stage Media
