TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — PJ Savoy led three Florida State players in double-digit scoring off the bench and the No. 24 Seminoles beat Southern Mississippi 98-45 in Tallahassee on Thursday.
Savoy had 17 points and seven rebounds, while M.J. Walker added 15 points and Mfiondu Kabengele ended with 12 points for Florida State (11-1), which had 13 players in the scoring sheet.
Savoy and Walker each made five 3-pointers, as the hosts hit 19 shots from beyond the arc – one shy of the school-record of 20, set in Dec. 2007 against Maine.
Sophomore guard Trent Forrest dished out 12 assists, two more than the entire Southern Mississippi team.
No Southern Miss players reached double-figures in scoring and the visitors shot a season-low 29.5 percent from the field (18 of 61) and missed 20 of its 24 attempts from 3-point range.
Eddie Davis III, Cortez Edward and Anfernee Hampton each scored eight points for the Golden Eagles (7-5), who saw its four-game winning streak snapped.
The Conference USA outfits were among the top five teams averaging the fewest turnovers in Division I, at 8.8 per game, but committed a season-worst 20 against FSU, and it also cost them 21 points.
It was the second successive season Southern Mississippi was losing heavily to Florida State, having lost 98-49 on Dec. 6, last season.
The Noles led 47-21 at halftime and extended that lead to as many as 57 in the second half, as they went on to improve their home win streak to 27 straight games, which is the third-longest active streak in Division I after Cincinnati (32) and SMU (31).
Next up for Florida State is its Atlantic Coast Conference opener on Dec. 30 at No. 4 Duke.
Southern Mississippi will next face Mississippi State on Friday in Jackson.
