Florida State turned Ja Morant into a volume shooter while dismantling Murray State

Ja Morant kept Murray State in the game for a bit, but ultimately (and effectively) Florida State turned the future NBA lottery pick into a volume shooter.

Ja Morant proved his singular talent on Thursday, with the first triple-double in the NCAA Tournament since 2012 in an upset win over Marquette. It’s easy to overlook the contribution of his Murray State teammates, who were effective enough to allow him to average 10 assists per game this season and converted 16 of Morant’s passes into buckets against Marquette.

Morant started Saturday’s game against Florida State 5-for-5 from 3-point range. The third of those five gave the Racers a 13-7 lead less than five minutes into the game. But the Seminoles took control, with a 33-13 run on their way to a 50-34 halftime lead.

When facing a star like Morant opposing teams will often accept that he’ll “get his”, while attempting to focus on limiting the supporting cast. Florida State was uniquely positioned to do just that. Coach Leonard Hamilton goes 10-deep with length and athleticism, and was able to use multiple different defenders on Morant.

Morant had 18 points in the first half, on 6 of 12 shooting (the aforementioned 5-for-5 from beyond the arc). He went just 1-for-7 from two-point range in the first half though, and it didn’t get better after that.

Morant finished with 28 points, on 8-for-21 from the floor( 5-for-6 from 3-point range), with five assists, four rebounds and two steals. As a team Murray State shot 32.8 percent from the floor (20-for-61), and players other than Morant went 2-for-12 from beyond the arc. Only two other Racers, guard Shaq Buchanan (12 points) and forward Darnell Cowart (11 points) scored in double figures.

As could have been foreseen going in, Florida State dominated the glass (45-33). But they also surprisingly started hot from beyond the arc, going 8-for-14 in the first half after entering the game making essentially one-third of three-pointers on the season (33.4 percent). Sophomore forward Mfiondu Kabengele led the way with 22 points, seven rebounds and three blocks off the bench, but five other guys had at least eight points, led by Terance Mann’s 18 (along with eight rebounds and six assists).

Morant surely played his final college game on Saturday, as he weighs staying in school against an advancing case to be the No. 2 pick in June’s NBA draft. But Florida State had a plan to push him into his higher end as a volume shooter, as Morant took just over 34 percent of Murray State’s shots on Saturday after taking 29 percent of the team’s shots entering the game.

With the athletes to stifle Morant, as perhaps only a Power 6 school with a deep roster could (Murray State entered the game No. 4 the country in shot quality, as measured by Dribble Handoff’s ShotQ), the Seminoles are headed to the Sweet 16 on the high of a 90-62 victory.