Jacksonville Classic basketball: Florida State defense locks down Loyola Marymount

Maybe Florida State's early efficiency on offense wasn't quite what Leonard Hamilton had hoped for.

But the defense? Humming along just fine.

"Any time you hold an opponent to 17 points in the first half," the Seminoles' coach said, "it's some good defensive basketball."

It took a few minutes, but the Seminoles eventually turned up the intensity for a defensive display that looked worthy of a top-20 national program, defeating Loyola Marymount 73-45 in Sunday evening's Jacksonville Classic at the University of North Florida's UNF Arena.

Three months ago, Florida State football stopped in Jacksonville to practice. Sunday, the Seminoles' men's hoops squad came to play.

The result: a festival of garnet and gold defense, and a showcase of talents to come, on the First Coast.

Freshman Matthew Cleveland led with 13 points, while Malik Osborne and Tanor Ngom — in his first-ever FSU start — tallied 10 apiece in a balanced night for the No. 19 Seminoles on offense.

The night didn't start so smoothly: Loyola Marymount jumped out to an 8-2 edge in the first 97 seconds.

"It's kind of who we are right now," Hamilton said. "We're not a well-oiled machine. We have a lot of inexperienced guys that are playing major minutes."

But Lions guard Eli Scott received a technical foul after sinking a 3-pointer, Osborne shot the ensuing technical shots to spark an 11-0 run and the Seminoles (3-1) shook off their slow start.

The Seminoles play Monday night in the game for the Duval Bracket against Missouri.

FSU in lockdown mode

The stat sheet told the story.

Through 15 minutes, Loyola Marymount had 14 points — and 12 turnovers.

With smothering pressure and swarming strength in depth, Florida State rushed Loyola Marymount (2-2) into six turnovers within the first eight minutes.

The Seminoles forced a barrage of miscues and pinned the Lions down into dead ends along the sideline, while successfully limiting the damage from Scott, the first player in Loyola Marymount's noted hoops history to score 1,000 points, 600 rebounds and 300 assists in his career. Scott finished with seven points and four turnovers, while Joe Quintana led the Lions with 12.

The usual strengths for Seminoles hoops came through again: 32 points off the bench, where Hamilton used 12 FSU players before halftime, and 33 points from the Lions' 24 turnovers.

It's a team that appeared to have learned its lessons from the Nov. 14 loss to rival Florida.

Triple threat after halftime

If Loyola Marymount had any hopes of climbing back into the game, FSU extinguished them at the start of the second half.

FSU removed all doubt with a boom-boom-boom trio of unanswered 3-pointers on consecutive possessions within a minute from RayQuan Evans, Caleb Mills and Malik Osborne to stretch the edge to 41-19.

Then came two more threes within the next two minutes by Anthony Polite and Osborne to build a 25-point advantage.

Those treys highlighted an on-target shooting night beyond the arc, where FSU nailed 8 of 19 attempts (42.1 percent).

"I thought we had a couple of spurts at the end of the first half and in the second half where I thought we shot the ball real well, moved the ball, made the extra pass," Hamilton said.

Hamilton tries lineup tweak

Wyatt Wilkes had started in FSU's first three games of the season, but Hamilton elected to hand Ngom — recently recovered from a stint in the concussion protocol — his first start as a Seminole.

The 7-2 redshirt senior, originally from Dakar, Senegal, delivered four points and two rebounds before the first media timeout.

Ngom came through on a big night for FSU's big men. Seven-foot freshman John Butler played 18 minutes with five points and three blocked shots, while 7-4 sophomore Naheem McLeod stood tall in the paint with six points and a plus/minus of 21, second only to guard Caleb Mills.

"[Loyola Marymount] is a very physical team. We thought we'd play a little bigger starting out," Hamilton said.

Cleveland rocks for Noles

A heralded four-star recruit out of Pace Academy in Atlanta, freshman Cleveland gave the Jacksonville crowd a taste of his talents.

Cleveland energized the Seminoles off the bench, leading the team in scoring while playing fewer than 17 minutes.

Hamilton pointed to Cleveland's energy and confidence for sparking Florida State after a tentative start on the offensive end.

"He plays the game with a tremendous amount of passion," Hamilton said. "His production tonight was a reflection of how hard he's worked all summer, all fall, and he's making tremendous progress."

One newcomer who didn't see action was Loyola Marymount redshirt freshman guard Mayoum Mayoum, who played high school hoops in Jacksonville at Potter's House Christian.

A work in progress? Certainly. A night in the win column for FSU? Definitely.

"There were times when I had five first-year players out there together," Hamilton said. "This is the challenge we have as a staff, to be patient while we're still developing."

Missouri 80, SMU 75

Kobe Brown nailed a go-ahead 3-pointer with 1:29 left in overtime to lift Missouri past SMU in a thriller in the Jacksonville Classic's opening-night conclusion.

Amari Davis sealed the win for the Tigers with six points, four from the free-throw line, in the last 80 seconds.

That was enough to overcome 29 points from Kendric Davis for SMU (3-2) in front of 1,632 at UNF Arena.

The Tigers (3-1) had forced overtime on Dajuan Gordon's old-fashioned 3-point play with 29 seconds to go, capping a rally from 12 points down with eight minutes left.

Brown led Missouri with 24 points, while Ronnie DeGray III scored 18 off the bench and Davis and Gordon had 14 apiece. Missouri won the rebounding battle 49-34, overcoming 18 turnovers.

Clayton Freeman covers high school sports and more for the Florida Times-Union. Follow him on Twitter at @CFreemanJAX.

This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Florida State tops Loyola Marymount in Jacksonville Classic basketball