Florida State may just be finding its home-court advantage once again.

Wake Forest entered Tuesday with an active nine-game winning streak and an 11-3 record (3-0 in ACC). But even the Demon Deacons' winning streak couldn't survive that Tucker Civic Center magic that has been missing the last few seasons.

The FSU men's basketball team (9-6, 3-1) snapped that streak with a 87-82 win Tuesday night. It's the Seminoles' third straight win and their fifth in the last six games.

"It's nice to win a game when you're still growing..." FSU head coach Leonard Hamilton said.

"The good thing about this team at this point in the season, being that now we are getting some quality depth developed is we still have a lot of room to grow. We have potential that we can get much better."

While the final score was close, it was a game FSU led throughout for over 33 of the 40 minutes of game time.

The Seminoles led by as many as 12 points in the first half. Much of this was due to a hot shooting start as FSU shot 46.7% in the first half and made six of eight shots from outside the arc.

However, the Seminoles' halftime lead was just 42-41 after Wake went on a 17-5 run to tie the game late in the first half. FSU responded to that Wake run in a major way, starting the second half on a 14-2 run to reestablish its larger lead.

The Deacs rallied and even took the lead at 69-68 with six minutes left, but the Seminoles again counterpunched, extending their lead to 10 once again.

Much of FSU's success against the Demon Deacons came because of its ability to force turnovers at an exceptionally high rate. After committing 10 first-half turnovers, Wake Forest committed six turnovers in the first five minutes of the second half as FSU rebuilt its lead.

The Demon Deacons finished with a season-high 20 turnovers, which the Seminoles turned into 22 points off turnovers and 12 fastbreak points.

"I can't remember the last time we had more than 10 (turnovers) so credit their defense and coach Hamilton for getting his team ready to play like that..." Wake Forest head coach Steve Forbes said. "I thought Florida State did a really good job of speeding us up on offense the entire game with their aggressiveness, their length and their switching."

Jamir Watkins led the way for the Seminoles with 19 points. While he was only 4 of 9 from the field, he was a perfect 11 of 11 from the free-throw line. He also had nine assists, three rebounds, a block and a steal. Darin Green Jr. also added 17 points on 7 of 12 shooting with five steals.

Once again, sophomore forward Baba Miller came up big for FSU on a few fronts as well. He notched a career-high 14 points and added three blocks and three rebounds along with a generally impressive defensive presence.

Cam Hildreth led the Demon Deacons with 25 points.

Up Next

FSU's seven-game homestand has finally come to an end. The Seminoles will hit the road Saturday for their first game away from home since Dec. 9 on Saturday when they play at -Notre Dame (6-9. 1-3) at 2:15 p.m.

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