Deacs destroy Noles
Kiel Turpin trimmed Florida State's (13-10, 5-5 ACC) deficit to six at the 19:23 mark of the second half before Wake Forest (11-12, 4-7 ACC) outscored the Seminoles 37-14 the rest of the game on its way to an impressive 71-46 win to put an end to the Demon Deacons four-game losing streak.
Travis McKie returned to his usual self to lead Wake with 15 points after an abysmal five-point outing in Tuesday's blowout loss to North Carolina, while C.J. Harris and Codi Miller-McIntyre scored 14 points apiece and Chase Fischer added 10 points off the bench.
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The Deacs quickly asserted their control on the boards with a 22-8 rebounding edge in the first half on its way to a 45-25 advantage on the glass. Wake Forest outscored the Noles 32-16 in the paint, and had 18 more second chance points.
Jeff Bzdelik's team never trailed, and led by as many as 26 points on two occasions in the final three minutes.
Wake showed toughness and discipline when it weathered a 9-4 run by the Seminoles that brought the Deacs lead down to six with 4:23 left in the first half before going on an 8-2 spurt to go back up 11 on FSU.
Michael Snaer and Okaro White both scored 13 points, but were Florida State's only double-digit scorers as Wake Forest held the Noles to a 32.6-percent shooting from the field and 30.8-percent from downtown.
The Demon Deacons shot 49.1-percent from the field and 41.2-percent from three-point land.
This is Wake's first win over FSU during Bzdelik's head-coaching tenure after losing the first three meetings by a combined score of 244-179.