TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – The NC State men’s basketball could not get over the hump Saturday afternoon as it fell to 18th-ranked Florida State, 78-73, at the Donald L. Tucker Center.
With the loss NC State falls to 20-9, 8-8 in the ACC. Florida State improves to 23-6 and 11-5 in the ACC.
The Pack never led in the game, but never let Florida State run away with the game either. The Seminoles largest lead of the game was nine points as most of the game was spent with the margin between one and six points.
Sophomore forward DJ Funderburk led the Pack with 18 points and nine rebounds. Both figures tied his career-high. The Cleveland, Ohio native finished the game 4-of-7 from the field and 9-of-10 from the foul line.
Funderburk has now hit 33 of his last 37 free throw attempts.
Markell Johnson scored nine of his 14 points in the second half, while Torin Dorn scored all 12 of his points in the second half.
The Seminoles took their largest lead of the game at 39-30, barely over a minute into the second half, but NC State responded with an 11-4 run to cut the deficit to two on a Dorn jumper with 15:09 to go.
The game fell into that pattern for the rest of the game. The Seminoles would stretch the lead out to five or six points and NC State would come back to make it a one possession game.
Florida State led 63-57 on a thunderous dunk by Trent Forrest with 7:46 to go and appeared on the verge of landing a knockout blow, but Johnson nailed a three-pointer on NC State’s next possession and after a defensive stop, Braxton Beverly drained a three to tie the game at 63 with 6:57 to go.
Florida State scored the game’s next five points, but the Pack again responded by scoring the next four to cut it to a one-point deficit, 68-67, with 3:57 to play.
The Seminoles hit their free throws late though, scoring eight of their final 10 points at the foul line to keep the Pack at bay.
NC State had one final chance to tie the game, trailing 76-73, Beverly was fouled and went to the foul line, but he missed the front end of a one-and-one and Florida State secured the rebound and hit two free throws to close the scoring.
The Seminoles hit 17 of their 19 free throw attempts in the second half and had nine of their 11 offensive rebounds in the final 20 minutes.
Mfiondu Kabengele led Florida State with 16 points.
In a battle of the ACC’s most prolific benches, NC State’s outscored Florida State’s bench, 34-25. The Pack is the first team in ACC play to outscore the Seminoles bench.
NC State returns to action Wednesday night at 9 p.m. when it hosts Georgia Tech at PNC Arena. Wednesday will be Senior Day and the Pack will honor guard Torin Dorn in a pregame ceremony.
