Fueled by 32 points from sophomore guard Terquavion Smith, NC State men’s basketball routed Florida State 94-66 in a late-night matchup inside PNC Arena.
Entering the night, Florida State (7-16, 5-7 ACC) had been on the upswing — taking down the third-best team in the conference in a win over Pittsburgh and playing Clemson to a one-point game. Coming off an impressive win of its own in Winston-Salem, the Wolfpack (18-5, 8-4 ACC) didn’t fall victim to the trap game, asserting its dominance over the Seminoles early and rarely taking its foot off the gas.
“That’s a pretty good Florida State team,” said head coach Kevin Keatts. “Leonard [Hamilton] has done a tremendous job with their program. One of the challenges with our guys was that I wanted to make sure that we didn’t play the record and we played the team. When you look at [Florida State], they’re better than their record.”
En route to his second-highest point total of the season, Smith opened the scoring for the Wolfpack and never looked back. Florida State’s Matthew Cleveland struck first with a jumper to give the Seminoles their only lead of the night, but the following 12-0 run from NC State — powered by a pair of 3-pointers by Smith and three buckets from senior guard Casey Morsell — put FSU in a hole it couldn’t dig itself out of.
Despite Cleveland cutting the lead to eight at the 16:43 mark in the first half, Florida State would never get closer to touching the Pack, giving up an 18-0 run that put NC State up 30-4 with just over 10 minutes to play in the first period. Just as Smith and Morsell put the Pack up early with the run of their own, graduate guard Jarkel Joiner and graduate forward DJ Burns put the game away in that 18-0 run with nine and six points, respectively.
In the early going, everyone on the floor played an integral part in dismantling the Seminoles at every level. NC State finished the first half shooting 45.9% from the floor, 69.2% from downtown and 75% from the charity stripe on the backs of seven unique scorers. Smith paced the team heading into the break with 16 points on 5-7 shooting from 3-point land, four rebounds and two assists.
“To see the first couple go in, that’s always big,” Smith said. “That’s a confidence booster. I kind of felt hot after that, but my teammates — give them credit — they’re going to keep getting me involved and make sure my head’s on right. That’s all that matters.”
Carrying a 49-27 lead into the halftime break, NC State had built a comfortable cushion — but if college basketball can teach anything, it’s that no lead is safe. Keeping the foot on the pedal in the second half would be a necessity for the Wolfpack to lock in the victory that eventually moved the team into the top four of ACC standings.
Florida State had counted on a slower start from the Pack to open the second period, looking far more competitive through the first 10 minutes of play than the team had at any point thus far. The combination of Cleveland, Darin Green and Cam Corhen clearly weren’t satisfied with the narrative of the night — trying everything in their power to will the Seminoles back into contention.
Corhen finished the night with a team-high 16 points for the Seminoles, followed by Cleveland and Green with 12 and 13 points, respectively. Unfortunately for Florida State, the efforts of the team’s only double-digit scorers wouldn’t come close to being enough to make the Wolfpack sweat.
Staying locked in for nearly the full 40 minutes, Smith finished the night with 32 points on 10-24 shooting from the field and 6-10 from beyond the arc. The sophomore added five rebounds and three assists to his stats to lead the team in box plus/minus at 29. Burns’ 15 points were the second highest from any Wolfpack player, with the graduate transfer shooting 5-6 from the floor, a perfect 5-5 from the line and adding four rebounds, three assists and a steal to his stat line.
Joiner and Morsell rounded out the Pack’s four-piece of double-digit scorers with 14 and 10 points, respectively. Joiner looked shifty as ever throughout the evening, consistently creating the space required to get his shot up comfortably. Equally as consistent, Morsell did what he’s been doing best all year again tonight — rattling home an uncontested 3-pointer and making his way into the lane with ease.
Other key contributors for NC State included redshirt junior forward Greg Gantt and freshman guard LJ Thomas. In relief of graduate guard Jack Clark, Gantt’s motor at the four spot has been instrumental to NC State’s recent string of success. He finished the night with five points, six rebounds and a team-high three steals. Thomas also looked impressive in his 12 minutes of court time, posting seven points and two rebounds.
“I’m learning; I feel like it’s just a great learning experience for me, especially playing behind such good guards like Jarkel and [Terquavion].” Thomas said. “I just go out there and make the best of my opportunities. When I go in I know I have to bring the energy because if I don’t, I’m coming out.”
For a team whose largest margin of victory was 18 points a year ago, NC State continues to flip the script with its seventh win by 20 points or more this season. The Pack’s standout transfers have certainly made a difference on the floor, not just in the box score.
“It’s big time man,” Joiner said. “This was unexpected — a new group of people, group of transfers, how are we going to gel and this and that. But we don’t pay attention to that stuff, we just lock in every day, prepare every day, practice, weight room — just go about everything the right way.
Looking ahead, NC State remains at home for its next matchup against Georgia Tech on Feb. 4 before hitting the road to Charlottesville, Virginia to face the No. 6 Cavaliers on Feb. 7. With eight games remaining on its schedule against conference opponents, the Wolfpack has a long way to go in terms of protecting the top-four seed in the ACC tournament that the squad has just taken claim to.
