Wake Forest Athletics
Wake Forest University
Florida State
Seminoles Rally to Defeat Deacons 84-66
2/19/2011 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Feb. 19, 2011
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The loss overshadowed a strong performance by Travis McKie who scored led all scorers with 20 points, in addition to pulling down eight rebounds. J.T. Terrell, Tony Chennault and Ari Stewart each contributed 12 points.
The Demon Deacons fall to 8-19 (1-11 ACC) while the Seminoles move to 19-7 (9-3 ACC).
The two sides played a hotly-contested first half with the Deacons taking a 33-31 lead into the halftime break, but the Noles proved to be too much in the second half, starting the period on a 17-6 run and never looking back. It was the first time this season that Wake Forest had lost after holding a halftime lead.
Florida State had four players in double figures, led by Bernard James' 15 points.
The Seminoles' defense proved to be a problem for Wake Forest, especially in the second half, as they held the Demon Deacons to 32 percent shooting (19-of-58) while shooting 45 percent (26-of-58) themselves, including 53 percent in the second half (17-of-32).
The Noles used their size to their advantage inside, holding a 41-37 advantage on the boards and outscoring the Demon Deacons 38-22 in the paint.
Offense was hard to come by for either team early, leaving the score tied 2-2 going into the first media timeout. Shortly after, back-to-back baskets by McKie gave Wake its first lead at 6-2.
The Deacs surged for an 8-1 run, led by two buckets by Stewart, that stretched their lead to 14-6 midway through the opening period.
Bernard James scored seven consecutive points for Florida State to spark a 10-2 run, putting the Seminoles back in the lead at 23-21 with four minutes to play in the half. Carson Desrosiers followed with an eight-footer that knotted the game at 23-23 and after a few scoreless FSU possesions, Terrell swished a three-pointer to put the Deacs back in the lead 26-23.
Terrell was fouled shooting a three-pointer with 0.9 seconds left in the period, draining all three free throws to give the Deacons a 33-30 lead, but the half was not quite over yet as the officials whistled Terrell for a foul with 0.1 seconds on the clock, sending Deividas Dulkys to the line for three shots. The Lithuanian missed the first two attempts as the crowd grew raucous, before hitting the last to send the teams into the locker room with Wake Forest leading 33-31.
Florida State came out of the break strong, starting the period on a 19-6 run to jump out to a 50-39 lead.
After the Seminole lead ballooned to as many as 20 points, back-to-back three pointers by Chennault and Terrell brought the deficit to 69-55.
The Demon Deacons will return to action Tuesday when they host Virginia Tech at 7 p.m. at Joel Coliseum. The game will be broadcast on ESPN2 and can also be heard on the Wake Forest Sports Network from IMG College.
