Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, March 21, 1993 TAG: 9303210050
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: E4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JACK BOGACZYK STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: ORLANDO, FLA. LENGTH: Medium
FSU'S CASSELL LEADS ROUT OF TULANE 94-63
Florida State's trip to the NCAA Tournament's Sweet 16 looked like something that might have been run up Interstate 4 at Daytona International Speedway.Tulane's band was cheering "Roll, Wave, Roll," but it was the Seminoles who did the rolling in a 94-63 rout Saturday in the Southeast Region's second round.
"Florida State got a lead, and then we tried to speed up the game to get back into it," Tulane coach Perry Clark said. "That was playing right into their hands."
The Green Wave (22-9), which upset Kansas State on Friday to advance to their second straight appearance in the basketball tournament's round of 32, didn't need to hand it to the Seminoles. FSU (24-9), the Southeast's No. 3 seed, took whatever it wanted in the game's last 21 minutes.
Tulane trailed 31-29 with 1:20 left in the half, but FSU finished the period with eight straight points. Then the Seminoles finished the Wave's season, scoring 17 of the first 22 points after intermission while Tulane was making one of 10 shots from the floor.
It only got worse for the Metro Conference regular-season runners-up. FSU won the schools' football date 70-7 last fall. This was the hoops version of that.
"Right now, we're just doing a great job finding the open man," said FSU guard Sam Cassell, whose game-high 31 points included a perfect day behind the 3-point arc. "Our defense, our rebounding just pushes our offense."
Cassell was 7-of-7 from long distance as FSU roared into a Thursday night regional semifinal date with Western Kentucky at the Charlotte (N.C.) Coliseum.
Only one FSU team had more victories in a season than this one - the 1971-72 national runner-up squad that finished 27-6.
"I don't know whether we can play any better than we did in the second half," Seminoles coach Pat Kennedy said. "We spoke about our win over Wake Forest at home, when we had only four turnovers and 110 points. This game was kind of like that."
After building its 10-point halftime lead, Florida State shot 68 percent (21-of-31) and committed only three turnovers in what may have been the final 20 minutes in Clark's coaching days at the New Orleans' school.
"I think Florida State has all of the ingredients to go to the Final Four," Clark said. "We tried to control the game with our offense and tried to take their big people outside.
"We had some breakdowns, some turnovers. Their size created problems for us. I really thought we were playing well in the first half, but you can't let down against a team as athletic as Florida State."
In the Tulane locker room after the loss, Clark admonished a New Orleans newspaper reporter who was questioning Green Wave players about speculation that their coach would move to Georgia Tech, if Yellow Jackets coach Bobby Cremins moves to his alma mater, South Carolina.
It could have been the Green Wave that owned a double-figure lead at halftime. While the Greenies managed to keep it close for 19 minutes, they still missed gimme after gimme, particularly forward Carlin Hartman.
At halftime, the shot chart showed Tulane was 4-of-13 on layups, while FSU was 10-of-14. For the game, Tulane shot only 35 percent (26-of-75), its next-to-worst marksmanship this season. Only a 31 percent performance in a loss at Temple was worse.
Doug Edwards, as usual, was FSU's inside force, with 22 points, 12 rebounds, five assists, four blocks and three steals. The senior forward "was just fabulous," Kennedy said.
"Our first time in the NCAA, two years ago, we got past round one," Edwards said. "The second year, we got past round two. We're there again, but we're looking for more this time." \
see microfilm for box score