Florida State brings defensive 'urgency' into Georgia Southern tilt

Luke Loucks made it clear he was bringing a fast tempo and a bunch of 3-point shooting to the Florida State basketball team.

The defensive chaos the Seminoles have created early in his coaching tenure is a bit more of a surprise.

Florida State forced 26 turnovers in Tuesday's 87-73 win over UT Martin and will look to carry that success over into Friday's game against Georgia Southern in Tallahassee, Fla.

The Seminoles (3-1) had 19 steals in the win over the Skyhawks. It was their most in a game since 1996 and one off the program record, with five different players recording three-plus steals.

Through four games, Florida State is averaging 20.5 forced turnovers per game (tied for fourth nationally) and 12 steals per game (tied for 12th nationally).

"We have some good defenders that are aggressive. Sometimes I've just got to get out of their way," Loucks said. "... You could tell the urgency our guys were playing with defensively really helped force a lot of those turnovers. That's the way we're going to play."

Freshman Cam Miles scored a team-high 17 points Tuesday. He's the fourth different Seminole to lead the team in scoring through four games this season.

The game at Florida State presents a second opportunity this week for Georgia Southern (3-2) to defeat an Atlantic Coast Conference opponent.

The Eagles nearly pulled off a win in the first chance Tuesday night, falling 68-66 at Georgia Tech. Georgia Southern led by 11 points in the first half and trailed by just two points with six seconds left when Nakavieon White got the ball knocked away while driving for the would-be tying basket.

"We obviously saw space. Their guy made a play," Georgia Southern coach Charlie Henry said of the final play vs. Georgia Tech.

Alden Applewhite posted a double-double with 11 points and 11 rebounds in the loss. The forward is averaging 13.3 points per game and shooting a team-high 46.7% from 3-point range.

Georgia Southern forced 22 turnovers against Georgia Tech and is averaging 16.8 forced turnovers per game. However, the Seminoles are turning it over just 9.8 times per game.

--Field Level Media