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Two days after shocking Duke, Seminoles come out flat in 77-62 loss.
©Associated Press
January 9, 2002
RALEIGH, N.C. -- Beating Duke is tough. Following with another victory proved more difficult for Florida State.
The Seminoles missed 12 of their first 14 shots and committed 21 turnovers as North Carolina State built a big early lead en route to a 77-62 victory Tuesday night.
The 48-hour turnaround from Sunday night's stunning win over the nation's No. 1 team proved too difficult for the Seminoles, who haven't won here since 1998.
"This is new water for us," Florida State coach Steve Robinson said. "We haven't been exposed to this kind of situation in a while.
"We've won games back to back, but when you play a team like Duke, in order to win that basketball game you've got to expend a lot of energy and emotion. Could we have performed better given more time? Probably so."
Anthony Grundy led the Wolfpack with 15 of his 18 points in the second half. Marcus Melvin and Julius Hodge added 12 each as N.C. State beat Florida State for the sixth straight time.
Monte Cummings led the Seminoles with 23 points, and Anthony Richardson added a season-high 19. Antwuan Dixon, who has scored in double figures 10 times this season, was held to a season-low two while battling foul trouble.
"When you turn the basketball over and they're knocking down shots, that's energy for them," Robinson said. "That's energy from the crowd. That's energy from making good plays. We just didn't have that same kind of energy. We just could not get going."
Both teams were coming off surprising wins over Top 5 clubs. The Wolfpack won Saturday at then-No. 4 Virginia, and the 17-point underdog Seminoles edged Duke 77-76 at home Sunday night.
But the Seminoles fell behind by 16 with 3:52 left in the first half and never recovered, failing in their bid to win five in a row for the first time since the 1996-97 season.
"Coach said it could be one of two ways," Grundy said. "They could have been on their high horse and not looked at us as a good team or they could have come out and not known what they were going against. They came out and gave us their best shot."
The Wolfpack improved to 2-1 in the ACC for the second time in Herb Sendek's six seasons, coasting after a 3-point barrage over 4:11 in the first half.
Archie Miller made three straight 3-pointers during N.C. State's 17-6 run that turned the game, two within eight seconds at the end of the spurt as the Wolfpack went up 32-16. Hodge and Melvin also made 3-pointers during the run.