FSU goes one and done at ACC Tournament
GREENSBORO, N.C. -- Scott Wood has a pretty simple explanation for his otherwise unexplainable success against the Florida State Seminoles.
"I think its the [Warchant] honestly," Wood said. "It really gets me going."
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Whatever it is -- a school's most recognizable tradition or not -- FSU might be wise to keep it down when playing N.C. State.
For the second time this season, Wood, the Wolfpack's lanky freshman 3-point specialist, torched the third-seeded Seminoles from beyond the arc, scoring a game-high 18 points in N.C. State's 58-52 win over FSU in the quarterfinals of the ACC Tournament.
Wood, who scored a career-high 31points in the Wolfpack's win in Tallahassee earlier this season, didn't even bother to take a shot from inside 3-point range, and finished 6-of-10 shooting.
No matter what the Seminoles did to defend him -- and they tried nearly everything -- Wood found a look, and more often than not, knocked it down. His six 3-pointers are the most in a single game in ACC Tournament history.
"We had to lock-and-drill him a lot, and sometimes he was just covering the lane, and then he'd go off to the other side and try to fake us out," said sophomore Chris Singleton. "When we wanted to guard him we guarded him. It's just that we faltered sometimes."
Said Wood: "Good screens and good cuts beat a good defense."
When Wood and the No. 11 seed Wolfpack weren't knocking down shots, FSU readily sabotaged its own cause and allowed those in attendance --nearly all of them wearing N.C. State's red and white colors -- to stay loud and on their feet.
There were 20 turnovers (against only eight assists) that the Wolfpack turned into 16 points.
There was a free throw percentage that drives coaches crazy -- Florida State finished 9-of-17 from the line.
And there were the kind of things that just add up to get a team beat, whether it be a bad foul on a layup, an errant pass, or a nearly five minute stretch in the first half in which FSU scored just three points.
"Any time you play against a team that's executing, moving the ball well, an getting as high-percentage shots as they were getting, and you give it back to them 20 times, it's very difficult to overcome," Hamilton said.
With a the ACC Tournament now behind them, the Seminoles will return home and wait to learn their seed and destination for next week's NCAA tournament. Most bracket pundits projected FSU to be between a No. 7 and No. 9 seed before Friday's game.
"I think we're a much better team than we showed tonight," Hamilton. "We always have a way of bouncing back. I expect this team to bounce back and come back and play very well once we get into the NCAA Tournament."
Talk about it on the Tribal Council or the Hoops Message Board.