Florida State University Athletics
Men’s Basketball Defeats Lipscomb, 97-60
12/15/2021 11:05:38 PM | Men's Basketball
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (seminoles.com) — Anthony Polite scored a career-high 25 points in leading the Seminoles to a 97-60 victory over Lipscomb at the Donald L. Tucker Center. Polite led five Seminoles in double-figure scoring, with Wyatt Wilkes contributing 13 points, Malik Osborne and Cam’Ron Fletcher with 12 apiece, and John Butler with 11 points.
Polite enjoyed an outstanding night as he totaled 25 points, three rebounds, a career-high tying five assists and four steals. He made 10 of 14 shots from the field, was two of three from the 3-point line, and was a perfect three of three from the free throw line. Polite was three points better than his 22-point performance against Colorado in the 2021 NCAA Tournament.
After a somewhat slow start, the Seminoles went took the lead for good at 17-16 with 12:04 remaining to be played in the first half on a Polite 3-point shot. The Seminoles finished the final 12 minutes of the first half on a 30-12 run and took a 44-28 lead over the Bisons at halftime. Florida State has led at half in nine of their ten games this season.
After a handful of threes, the Seminoles were up 60-31 at the first media timeout in the second half. Florida State made a season-high 14 3-point shots in gaining the win.
Eight Seminoles scored at least one 3-pointer during the game: RayQuan Evans (one of one), Polite (two of three), Osborne (two of three), Butler (three of four), Jalen Warley (one of two), Fletcher (one of four), Wilkes (three of seven), and Isaac Spainhour (one of two).
Florida State shot .529 from the field and an even better .538 from beyond the arc. Polite now has 90 career 3-point field goals made and needs only 10 more to become the 24th player in school history with 100 or more 3-point field goals made. The redshirt senior also had four steals against Lipscomb and has 104 career steals in 93 career games (1.1 spg average).
The Seminoles lead the ACC in steals with a 10.1 spg average this season. They have earned double figures in steals in five different games (15 against Penn, 14 vs. Loyola Marymount, 12 against Boston University, 10 against Missouri, and 10 against Lipscomb) and have at least seven in each of their 10 games this season.
Butler scored his career-high with 11 points against the Bisons. The freshman led the team in rebounds with seven and contributed two blocks. Both Butler and Wilkes had three from beyond the arc and led the team in 3-point shots made.
Osborne has scored in double figures in eight of the Seminoles’ ten games this season and averages a career-high 11.8 points per game. The redshirt senior has scored in double figures in 31 career games.
Lipscomb’s Jacob Ognacevic led the team with 20 points, and Kaleb Coleman contributed 10 points. The Seminoles outrebounded the Bisons by a 40-31 margin.
Florida State will travel to Sunrise, Florida this weekend to play UCF in the Orange Bowl Classic on Saturday, December 18. The game tips off at 3:30 p.m.