SUNRISE, Fla. _ After promising that St. Louis University was facing its toughest opponent of the season, Travis Ford watched that analysis come true Saturday afternoon.
No. 11 Florida State raced to a double-digit lead in the first seven minutes and continued to build on the advantage in posting an 81-59 win at the BB&T Center.
The Seminoles made 10 of 18 3-pointers and shot 55.4 percent overall, marking the second consecutive game that a SLU opponent has made more than half of its shots.
The Billikens (8-4) had 18 turnovers and shot 30.4 percent. They also surrendered more points than in any game this season.
"Florida State is really, really, really good," Ford said. "They're very physical and did a good job of taking us out of our offense either with turnovers or tough shots. I thought defensively our numbers were horrific for what we usually do, but a lot of that is attributable to our offense not being able to complete shots and putting the defense at a disadvantage."
Javon Bess led SLU with 16 points, and Carte'Are Gordon had 14. Tramaine Isabell Jr. reached 1,000 points for his career split between three schools.
SLU used a fullcourt press for the second consecutive game and put together a 10-0 run late in the game by forcing some turnovers. But the Billikens never were able to get the deficit back to a single digit after Florida State (11-1) raced to a 16-4 lead.
The Billikens did have their best game from the free-throw line, making 72 percent (18 for 25). And they continued to build on the creation of a press that has made an impact the last two games.
Florida State took the first lead with a 3-pointer by Terance Mann and continued to build. Mann led the early charge by scoring 11 points during the Seminoles' 16-4 game-opening run.
"This was just one of those games where nothing went our way," senior Javon Bess said. "There were things we've been messing up in practice that we couldn't recover from. That was a good team, and you could see they were together the whole game."
The Billikens couldn't generate any runs because of turnovers, many of them unforced, such as a traveling violation against Isabell in the backcourt and a throwaway by Gordon under light pressure in the backcourt.
SLU had cut the deficit from 17 points to 12 and got a defensive stop. But with a chance to get within 10 at halftime, Jordan Goodwin lost his grip on the ball on SLU's next possession, giving the Seminoles another possession to end the half.
Nichols hit a 3-pointer at the buzzer to extend the Florida State lead to 40-25 at the break.
