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Florida State closes out the regular season today in a noon tip at Wake Forest. The game will be broadcast on ACC ESPN Network Extra. The Seminoles opened as a 12-point favorite. FSU won, 88-66, at home in the team’s previous matchup this season. Both team’s seeding for next week’s ACC Tournament is set, with FSU at 4th and Wake Forest at 13th.
The Demon Deacons have gone 11-18 (4-13 in the ACC) in Head Coach Danny Manning’s fifth year. Despite struggling throughout the season, Wake Forest nearly pulled off a shocking upset in their last game at Duke as the would-be game-winning shot rimmed out at the buzzer. Coach Hamilton said his team watched the end of that game in their locker room following the Virginia Tech game and know that this is not a team they can afford to overlook.
One of the few things that Wake Forest does well statistically is crash the boards, especially at their own basket where they are 29th in the country in grabbing 34% of available offensive rebounds. That is partly due to having plenty of opportunities on missed shots as a bad shooting team. Their 45.1% effective field goal shooting ranks 341st in the nation. They are much better at the free throw line where they shoot 72.6%. The Deacons are led in scoring and assists by guard Brandon Childress with 14.8 and 4.1 per game, respectively. Freshman forward Jaylen Hoard adds 13.2 points a game and a team-best 7.8 rebounds.
The Seminoles are the better team in this matchup, no doubt about it, but winning on the road in the ACC is never a given. FSU will get Wake Forest’s best effort as the Deacons hope to end their season on a high note by pulling off the upset.
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