Full-grown Florida State manhandled Wake Forest on Wednesday in a methodical 75-52 pounding in front of 9,147 fans at Joel Coliseum.
The Seminoles, capitalizing on the Deacons' loss of center Ty Walker because of a concussion, scored 40 points from point-blank range, shot 68 percent from the floor in the second half and held Wake Forest to 35 percent for the game.
Wake Forest trailed only 32-30 when coach Leonard Hamilton of FSU called a timeout with 17 minutes remaining, and the Seminoles responded by scoring 12 consecutive points to take control. The victory, their sixth straight, lifted the Seminoles to 14-6 overall and 5-1 in ACC play.
The Deacons, who got 16 points from C.J. Harris, 13 from Nikita Mescheriakov, 11 from Tony Chennault and only three from Travis McKie, slipped to 11-9 and 2-4 with their fourth loss in the past five games.
"They've got a couple of guys who are just grown, grown men,'' Chennault said. "And that's grown-men strength. It's a different type of strength.
"And Ty Walker not being in there in the second half was the difference.''
Walker, whose six blocks helped carry the Deacons to Saturday's 71-56 victory at Boston College, collided with senior Bernard James of the Seminoles with about 10 minutes remaining in the first half. Walker slumped to his knees, then left the game, only to return at the third media timeout with 6:51 showing.
He played the rest of the half, but he was evaluated at halftime and was not allowed to return.
Hamilton said Florida State's intention coming out in the second half was to pound the ball inside, and he acknowledged that the absence of Walker — who blocked four shots in 15 first-half minutes — made the task easier. After Hamilton's timeout early in the second half, the Seminoles scored three straight baskets over sophomore Carson Desrosiers inside.
"Their coach was yelling, 'Get it inside, get it inside,' '' Harris said. "So I knew they put emphasis on getting it inside after halftime.
"They did a good job of getting it in there and going up strong.''
Michael Snaer, who made all four of his 3-point attempts and led FSU with 18 points, then hit consecutive 3-pointers to extend the lead to 44-30, and the Deacons never recovered. FSU outscored Wake Forest 43-22 over the final 17 minutes.
"Losing Ty Walker really put us in a tailspin,'' coach Jeff Bzdelik of Wake Forest said. "We had no answers inside with our interior defense, and it really put us on our heels.
"And then offensively, we got out of sync due to our guys getting out of position."
Bzdelik said Walker will be evaluated daily, so his status for Saturday's game at Clemson remained unknown.
"As far as Ty is concerned, the doctors will tell me what he can and cannot do,'' Bzdelik said.
Offensively, the Deacons couldn't compensate for a miserable performance by McKie, who entered the game averaging 17.2 points while shooting 50 percent from the floor and 38 percent from 3-point range. He turned the ball over on his first touch, shot an airball on his first jumper, missed his first four 3-point attempts badly and scored his only field goal on an inside basket off a feed from Chennault.
He finished with one field goal on 13 attempts, although he did hustle his way to a team-high nine rebounds.
"He had really good looks, and they just wouldn't go down for him,'' Bzdelik said.
"We tried to post him up in there, and they did a good job of doubling him. But I said, 'As long as you play this game, you're going to have nights like this. Put it behind you.' "
McKie said that following his coach's advice won't be easy.
"For whatever reason, I wasn't there offensively or defensively,'' McKie said. "I didn't do a good job, and we just didn't play well.
"I'm going to hang on to this one for a little while, but I've got to go back to work and get ready for Clemson. I'm definitely not going to get a lot of sleep.''
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