For the second straight midweek game, the Florida State men's basketball team put itself in way too large of a hole to climb out of.
Eight days after FSU fell behind Miami 29-9 in a non-competitive loss to the Hurricanes, the Seminoles fell behind even more drastically in the opening minutes of a road game NC State.
Just over nine minutes into the game, FSU trailed NC State 30-4. Although the Seminoles cut the deficit to as little as 17 points in the second, there was no slowing down the Wolfpack (18-5, 8-4 in ACC), which ran away with a 94-66 win over FSU (7-16, 5-7) Wednesday night at PNC Arena In Raleigh.
The loss is FSU's third consecutive defeat after winning at Notre Dame and Pitt two weeks ago. It also snaps a five-game losing streak over NC State.
FSU's 16 losses this season are now tied for second-most of any team during Leonard Hamilton's 21-year tenure.
Three-point defense still an issue
As has been the case a lot of late, FSU allowed NC State to start the game exceptionally hot from three-point range.
The Wolfpack started 7 of 8 from the perimeter to help build its remarkably fast big lead. While NC State didn't maintain that ridiculous pace, it still finished 12 of 20 from three (60%).
NC State standout guard Terquavion Smith was a big part of this strong showing from the perimeter. While he wasn't particularly efficient vs. FSU (10 of 24 from the floor), he made six threes, with 18 of his 32 points coming from outside the arc.
FSU entered Wednesday allowing opponents to hit 35.8% from three this season, tied for 292nd out of 352 D-I teams. Now, FSU is allowing opponents to shoot 36.7% from three, better than only two high-major teams this season.
Corhen leads the way for FSU
Although he wasn't on the court for the final few minutes of the game after fouling out, freshman forward Cameron Corhen was FSU's most consistent offensive weapon against NC State Wednesday night.
Corhen was an efficient 7 of 10 from the floor, racking up a team-high 16 points with six rebounds over 27 minutes.
After Darin Green Jr. was held scoreless in the second half, he racked up 13 points in the second half. Matthew Cleveland added 10 points for the Seminoles, his 16th straight game in double figures.
