In a bizarre game which was upstaged by the refs, the Florida State Seminoles never trailed and easily put NC State away 76-62. Ian Miller came off the bench to score 17 points, and had the answer every time the Wolfpack threatened to cut the lead to single digits. He made 6-9 field goal attempts (1-2 from deep) and 4-5 FTs. Bernard James (13), Michael Snaer (10) and Okaro White (10) were the other Noles in double digits. For the game FSU scored 1.06 per possession (1.10 prior to the walkons).
FSU is now 10-2 in the ACC, and in first place.
The Seminoles were able to score by pushing the ball and utilizing high screens to take advantage of the lack of lateral quickness by NCST's perimeter players. Once FSU stopped turning the ball over they were able to penetrate the defense at will setting up plenty of easy buckets. Eleven FSU players scored.
Defensively, Leonard Hamilton turned to Michael Snaer and asked him to stop Lorenzo Brown, one of the ACC's best point guards. Brown shot 2-9 and turned the ball over three times. FSU also had multiple players take turns chasing Scott Wood through screens and all of them were effective. Wood shot 1-10. For the game FSU held NCST's solid offense to 0.86 points per possession, which was their second lowest output of the season.
But everything I've recapped above was the sideshow. The refs, with Karl Hess as their chief, were artists. With numerous cheap fouls on FSU the Wolfpack were in the bonus by the under-12 media timeout in the first half. They ended up shooting 18 FTs compared to FSUs 4. This despite the fact that FSU was the offensively aggressive team, routinely driving the lane without picking up a call. In a sport where a foul could likely be called on every possession, 14 were called on FSU in the 1st half, compared to 6 for NCST. In the 2nd half Ian Miller got knocked into the NCST bench. No call. Deividas Dulkys got popped in the throat by Richard Howell. No call. Bernard James screamed after a block (not at anyone). Technical foul. Okaro White got elbowed in both his face and the back of his head on a rebound. Foul on Okaro. And then, about the time that NCST had to start fouling to try and stay in the game, Karl Hess stopped the game and began arguing with a couple fans in the front row. Twenty seconds later he tossed them both from the game. Those fans? NC State greats Tom Gugliotta and Chris Corchiani.
It was just one of those games. FSU won by 14, but that doesn't reflect how soundly NC State was beaten.