Florida State closed out the preseason against the LSU Tigers on Saturday afternoon, looking to build on the momentum they established against Auburn over a week ago.
LSU brought an interesting challenge. They're an older team still looking to gain chemistry, as a lot of their guys just became eligible within the last few days. Will Wade pushed the limits, as he usually does, to build this roster, but they're one of the more talented teams in the SEC.
The Tigers got out to an early 8-0 lead, flexing their muscle with some buckets from their backcourt of Donovan Dent and Skyy Clark.
Florida State would dominate the rest of the half on the backs of Kameron Taylor and Shon Abaev.
Abaev, in particular, was the driving force of the offense, finding a lot of success from behind the arc. They trust him with the ball in his hands, and the more he can see the floor, the better this offense will be.
FSU really created the lead with their work on the glass. Even when Marcis Ponder wasn't in the game, players like Alex Steen, Sebastian Rancik, and Kameron Taylor were doing enough, especially on the offensive glass.
Abaev had 12 points in the first half, Florida State shot 6/13 from three, and they led 38-31 at halftime. Considering that they had an eight-point hole to start the game, that's a great turnaround.
FSU picked up where it left off coming out of the break, starting with a well-drawn play to get a lob to Kameron Taylor.
An 11-2 spurt, which was finished with back-to-back threes from Elisee Assui and Shon Abaev, put FSU up by 14 with 13:42 to go.
The game was well in hand, but LSU started to chip away, especially as Abdi Bashir started to get hot from three. He hit three in the span of four minutes to cut the lead to five, then went on a 12-3 run soon after that to tie the game at 73 with 3:17 to play.
Not helping matters is that Anthony Robinson II left the game after coming down hard on a no-call at the rim (probably the correct call from the officials). That left the 'Noles without their primary point guard, but they'd respond with an and-one from Assui, then a shot clock-beating three by Shon Abaev.
It felt like FSU had it in hand once they went up 7 with 50 seconds to play, but LSU wouldn't go away. Skyy Clark hit two tough threes from the left corner in the final 40 seconds, and that cut the lead to two.
Shon Abaev would split a pair of free throws to make the lead three with just six seconds remaining. Luke Loucks wanted to play the foul game so as not to give LSU a clean look at three, but they called an intentional foul on Anthony Robinson, who checked back in for the final minute and a half.
That gave LSU two free throws and the ball with 2.1 to play. Donovan Dent split the free throws, then Anthony Robinson foced a turnover in the inbound, and FSU escaped with an 89-87 win.
Shon Abaev led all scorers with 26 points on 8/16 shooting, including an impressive 5/8 from three. Kam Taylor had another strong game with 16 points.
LSU's backcourt of Donovan Dent and Skyy Clark combined for 45 points, but FSU did a good job limiting everyone else. Abdi Bashir had the four three-pointers in the second half, but he shot just 4/11 for the game. I think you can live with that.
To show how much growth FSU has had under Luke Loucks, Will Wade led NC State into Tallahassee last year and curb-stomped the Seminoles, 113-69. A year later, he's back at LSU with a much more talented team, and FSU gets the win this time. That's an impressive turnaround in a short amount of time.
FSU was strong once again at the free-throw line, going 14/17 from the stripe. Here are three takeaways from this game.
I like a lot of things that Sebastian Rancik is doing. But I don't love it. He was really inefficient from the floor in the second game in a row, going just 4/12 after a 1/9 performance against Auburn.
He was perfect at the free-throw line once again, but I don't think they can rely on that. At some point, he needs to be more efficient from the field.
Rancik had a few plays where he tried to spin or drive into the lane and got the ball sent back at him. He had a couple of bad turnovers. This should be FSU's best player, but he hasn't played like it yet.
If they can get Rancik rolling, while Kam Taylor and Shon Abaev keep scoring like this, Florida State is going to be a tough team to deal with.
You always think that a staff can get the best out of a player, and FSU proved it could do so last year with Rob McCray, Chauncey Wiggins, and Lajae Jones all having great years.
But what Shon Abaev is doing is a complete 180 from what we saw from him last season at Cincinnati. His 26 points had every degree of difficulty possible. The three that he hit to beat the clock late in the second half came from him inbounding the ball.
Florida State could be a serious ACC contender if he keeps playing this well. I'm still going to watch his body language and shot selection, but the talent is real.
I really love how Elisee Assui played in this game. He finished with 11 points and 5 rebounds, but he was constantly making the right plays.
Whether he was kicking to open shooters after a defender collapsed in, attacking the basket, or hitting a tough and-one, he rarely second-guessed himself.
Yes, he played professionally overseas, but college basketball is a different game, and he's showing that he can be the perfect glue guy.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com/college/fsu as 3 Takeaways as FSU Basketball Picks Up Impressive Preseason Win Over LSU Tigers .
