Florida State 67, State 61: Postgame Observations

Here's a look at how and why the Wolfpack fell short in its attempt at beating a second top-10 opponent in less than a week

For 20 minutes Saturday, it appeared as though the NC State basketball team was poised to pull off a second straight win against a top-10 opponent -- something it hasn't done since 1985.

Showing no signs of a hangover from Wednesday's emotional win against No. 6 Duke, the Wolfpack began its game against No. 8 Florida State with energy and purpose in building a five-point halftime lead.

But coach Kevin Keatts' team wasn't able to sustain the monentum and pull off a win that would have greatly enhanced its NCAA tournament resume.

The Seminoles took control early in the second half with a combination of physical defense, offensive rebounding and a major disparity in free throws to take control and hand State a 67-61 setback at PNC Arena.

Here are some of the major factors that led to the result and what it means for the Wolfpack moving forward:

◼ One half, not a whole: As mentioned earlier, State's first half effort was a positive extension of its performance against Duke last Wednesday. Devon Daniels was in attack mode from the beginning, taking the ball hard to the rim every chance he could to either score or get fouled while big man D.J. Funderburk was active and effective inside with seven points and four rebounds.

Jericole Hellems also provided a big lift off the bench by scoring eight points and pulling down four rebounds in just 11 minutes.

On the other end of the court, the Wolfpack forced seven turnovers and limited the Seminoles to 37 percent shooting (3 of 23 from 3-point range) while outrebounding them 17-16. But games, especially those against one of the nation's best teams, aren't won in the first half, as State soon found out.

FSU coach Leonard Hamilton threw the Wolfpack a curve by coming out in a zone defense to start the second half and while Keatts insisted that it didn't throw his team off, the scoreboard suggests otherwise.

The Seminoles (23-4-13-3 ACC) outscored State 14-5 over the first five minutes of the period to turn the Wolfpack's 33-27 lead into a quick four-point deficit. And things didn't get much better eve after Hamilton switched back to man. 

State (17-10, 8-8) either couldn't or wouldn't get the ball inside, settling for too many perimeter jumpers and not enough baskets.

“We didn’t expect to see too much zone tonight," redshirt senior wing C.J. Bryce said. "But they went into it. I’m not sure we were up at the time they went into it, but it slowed us down a little bit. We have to continue to be aggressive.”

◼ Foul mood: Officiating in the ACC has been woefully inconsistent all season and that was never more evident than in this game.

In the first half, the trio of Roger Ayers, Lee Cassell and Jerry Heater called the game's first seven fouls on FSU, leading to a 10-5 disparity for the period. It's a statistic for which they must have been made aware at halftime, because when the teams came out for the second half, the calls were just as lopsided in the opposite direction.

Same teams, same style of play ... only this time the first six fouls were on State, leading to an even more pronounced 16-5 disparity. As a result, the Seminoles went to the line 24 times over the final 20 minutes, making 14. The Wolfpack, by contrast, shot just three free throws.

For the game, State made one more field goal and one more three-pointer than FSU and had two more field goal attempts. he difference in the game was at the free throw line, where the Seminoles outscored the Wolfpack 18-9 while getting 16 more attempts. 

Needless to say, Keatts wasn't happy with the way the game was called, leading to the inevitable technical. It came when the State coach complained to Cassell after Markell Johnson was sent to the floor while driving to the basket -- one of several State players that had that happen to them in the second half with no call.

"We committed 15 fouls in the second half and they committed five," Keatts said. "We were both playing the same type of basketball. I felt like on our drives, we didn't get the same whistles and I'm going to fight for my guys all the time." 

◼ Beaten on the glass: This is an extension of the foul situation, since Funderburk picked up his third and fourth personals before the first TV timeout of the second half and fellow big man Manny Bates was also forced to play cautiously because of foul trouble.

Between that and the rebounding ability of the Seminoles, who rank second in the ACC in that statistic, they were burned for 15 offensive rebounds -- producing 16 second chance points. 

Whereas four different State players pulled down nine or more boards in the win against Duke, Saturday against FSU, only two -- Daniels with nine and Hellems with seven -- had more than four. Those two were also the leading scorers with 18 and 14 points, respectively.

After winning the battle on the glass 17-16 in the first half, the Wolfpack was outrebounded 23-17 in the second.,

"It's hard for us to get offensive rebounds when our best rebounder is in the bench with 16 minutes to go," Keatts said. "D.J. Funderburk is one of the best offensive rebounders in the league and he's sitting there. It's a big difference."

◼ Big guns, small numbers: As has been docuented many times this season, the Wolfpack stands a better chance of winning when the "Good Markell" shows up -- as he did against Duke.

He didn't Saturday.

Although he got off to a decent start and finished with five assists and only one turnover, the senior point guard managed only seven points on 3 of 10 shooting (1 of 6 on three-pointers). 

Combine that with another of State's big guys, Bryce, going 2 for 12 (1 for 5) with five points, and that's tough for a team with only with only eight healthy players and relies heavily on balanced scoring to overcome.

◼ The bottom line: As much it would have helped State's NCAA tournament hopes to have won another game against a top-5, Quadrant 1 opponent, this loss didn't really do much to hurt the Wolfpack's chances, either.

Because of the significance of the signature win against Duke, State figures to still be in good shape on Selection Sunday as long as it doesn't slip up against against ACC bottom feeders North Carolina, Pittsburgh and Wake Forest to close out the regular season.