Seminoles dominate 2nd half, beat Wake Forest 91-71

Just a few minutes into the game it was apparent that Florida State was going to get good looks against the porous Wake Forest defense. Whether or not the players converted was another story, but the game had all the appearances of a high scoring affair.

This meant that the Demon Deacons would have to get hot from outside in order to keep up. And in the early going, that is exactly what they did.

Wake Forest made five of eight 3s to take a 4-point lead with 3:54 to go in the first half.

From there, it was all FSU.

The Noles finished the half on a 10-2 run, and went into the break up 37-33.

At the beginning of the second half, FSU pushed the lead to 10 before Wake Forest made a big run to tie the game at 48.

Wake Forest needed 3s to get over the hump, but they just weren't falling. After starting the game 5-8 from the arc, they went just 2-12 the rest of the way.

Misses and long rebounds led to transition opportunities for Florida State, and just a few possessions after Wake tied the game, the rout was on.

FSU outscored Wake Forest 43-23 the rest of the way. The final was 91-71.

Seven Seminoles scored at least nine points. Malik Beasley had 16, Montay Brandon and Xavier Rathan-Mayes each had 13, Boris Bojanovsky and Dwayne Bacon had 11 apiece, and Benji Bell and Devon Bookert both scored nine. For Bookert, this pushed his career total to 1,008 points, becoming the 44th player in program history to score 1,000 or more.

Florida State mixed and matched defenses all game. They played a lot of zone in the first half with Jarquez Smith on the bench with foul trouble. It wasn't a great defensive game for the Noles, but they did limit Wake to just six offensive rebounds. Bojo led the way with seven boards, while Montay and Bacon each had six.

The Noles are now 16-7 (6-5) and hit the road on Thursday for a game at Syracuse.