Florida State proves no match for streaking N.C. State, 75-59.
By KEVIN BRAFFORD
Published February 11, 2004
RALEIGH, N.C. - Florida State has shown it can beat the ACC's upper-tier teams at home. What the Seminoles haven't shown is that they can beat any league team on the road.
Proof came Tuesday for the fifth consecutive time this season and the 21st time over the past three seasons. Florida State lost to No. 21 North Carolina State 75-59.
Losing to the Wolfpack (15-5, 8-2) was neither a disgrace nor a surprise. N.C. State is the hottest league team not named Duke - Tuesday's win was its fourth in 10 days. What's more, the Wolfpack is an opponent the Seminoles (16-8,4-6) just can't seem to beat, having lost 11 consecutive.
"They know our strengths and weaknesses," Florida State guard Tim Pickett said. Pickett was held to five points, 11 under his average and a far cry from the 23.5 average he notched in the past six.
"They're good defensively, and they make their 3s."
At least on this night. Seventeen of the Wolfpack's first 20 shots from the floor were 3-pointers. The bad news for FSU: 10 of them went through the basket.
"It was lights out," FSU guard Todd Galloway said. "Obviously, they were very focused, and once you get going like they had it going, the basket looks awfully big."
It took less than 10 minutes for the Seminoles to fall behind by double digits, and the Wolfpack's 10th trey of the half - Scooter's Sherrill's second - left FSU with a 37-18 deficit.
"We were hot tonight," N.C. State coach Herb Sendek said. "The best thing, especially in the first half, was that we didn't really force things. We found the open shots, which just happened to be for three."
FSU coach Leonard Hamilton said the Seminoles have experienced similar stretches in front of their home crowd.
"When you're at home, you can get a little more excited, a little more focused," he said. "When you're focused, you can have those kinds of nights."
And when you're not focused, especially on the road, the reverse can happen, said FSU forward Adam Waleskowski.
"For some reason, we're not there mentally when we're in someone else's building," he said. "Then things happen like they happened tonight, and the game gets away from us."
Trailing by 13 at halftime, a positive start to the second was important. Instead, the Seminoles went backward, allowing the Wolfpack points on its first three possessions and padding a lead that crested at 56-32 seven minutes into the half.
To its credit, FSU kept playing hard and in one eight-minute stretch held the Wolfpack without a field goal in closing within 11 with 5:31 to play.
But N.C. State, the nation's top free-throw shooting team at 79.6 percent, made 10 of 12 down the stretch to keep the Seminoles at arm's length.
Only freshman guard Von Wafer, with 12 points in 24 minutes, and junior forward Anthony Richardson, with 11 in a return to his hometown, reached double figures for FSU. The starting five - Pickett, Michael Joiner, Andrew Wilson, Alexander Johnson and Nate Johnson - combined for just 21, one more than N.C. State freshman Engin Atsur.
Pickett, who bruised his tailbone late in Sunday's loss at Maryland, said he was sore but that it had nothing to do with a 2-for-8 shooting night. His coach wasn't so sure.
"He had problems loosening up," Hamilton said. "I guess he was probably three-quarters speed at best."
The next seven days are favorable for FSU, which hosts conference bottom-feeders Clemson (noon Saturday) and Virginia (7 p.m. Tuesday), both 2-7 in the league.
