No. 14/13 Florida State travels to Winston-Salem, N.C. to face Wake Forest on Saturday at noon from Lawrence Joel Veterans Memorial Coliseum in the ACC regular season finale for both teams. The Seminoles (24-6, 12-5 ACC), who have already locked up the No. 4 seed in next weeks Atlantic Coast Conference Tournament, are looking to win a school-record 13th conference game during the regular season. The Demon Deacons (11-18, 4-13 ACC) will see their season conclude on Saturday. The game will be shown by Raycom Sports. A list of affiliates and clearances can be found here. Tom Wereme and Cory Alexander will handle coverage. It can also be heard on the Seminole IMG Radio Network. The audio can be found here. Gene Deckerhoff and Keith Jones will be on the call. POSSIBLE STARTING LINEUP FOR FLORIDA STATE C #21 Christ Koumadje (6.9 rpg, 1.6 bpg; 20 pts and 12 rebs vs. Wake Forest, Feb. 13, 2019) F #0 Phil Cofer (7.0 ppg, 3.6 rpg; 23 pts and 8 rebs vs. Wake Forest, Jan. 31, 2018) G #3 Trent Forrest (9.0 ppg, 3.8 apg; 7 pts and 4 asts vs. Wake Forest, Feb. 13, 2019) G #14 Terance Mann (11.6 ppg, 6.3 rpg; 10 pts and 4 rebs vs Wake Forest, Jan. 31, 2018) G #23 M.J. Walker (8.1 ppg, 2.1 rpg; 9 pts and 2 rebs vs. Wake Forest, Jan. 31, 2018) TOP RESERVES F #25 Mfiondu Kabengele (13.3 ppg, 5.6 rpg; 9 pts and 7 rebs vs. Wake Forest, Feb. 13, 2019) G #5 PJ Savoy (6.4 ppg, 1.5 rpg; 11 pts in 10 minus of play vs. Wake Forest, Feb. 13, 2019) G #13 Anthony Polite (2.8 ppg, 1.7 rpg; 5 pts and 2 rebs vs. Wake Forest, Feb. 13, 2019) G #31 Wyatt Wilkes (1.4 ppg, 0.7 rpg; 2 pts and 1 reb vs. Wake Forest, Feb. 13, 2019) F #1 RaiQuan Gray (3.7 ppg; 2.2 rpg; 1 pt and 1 reb vs. Wake Forest, Feb. 13, 2019) G #10 David Nichols (6.6 ppg, 1.5 apg; 2 pts and 5 asts vs. Wake Forest, Feb. 13, 2019) G #24 Devin Vassell (4.6 ppg, 1.4 rpg; 8 pts and 2 rebs vs. Wake Forest, Feb. 13, 2019) POSSIBLE STARTING LINEUP FOR WAKE FOREST F #10 Jaylen Hoard (13.2 ppg, 7.8 rpg; 7 pts and 6 rebs vs. Florida State, Feb. 13, 2019) F #35 Ikenna Smart (2.4 ppg, 3.1 rpg; 0 pts and 3 rebs vs. Florida State, Feb. 13, 2019) G #0 Brandon Childress (14.8 ppg, 4.1 apg; 14 pts and 5 asts vs. Florida State, Jan. 31, 2018) G #2 Sharone Wright Jr. (7.1 ppg, 2.3 rpg; 7 pts and 1 reb vs. Florida State, Feb. 13, 2019) G #23 Chaundee Brown (11.9 ppg, 4.9 rpg; 20 pts and 1 stl vs. Florida State, Feb. 13, 2019) Officials: Referee is Tim Clougherty and the umpires are Clarence Armstrong and Les Jones. Series History: The series between the Seminoles and Demon Deacons is tied, 26-26. FSU won their last meeting, 88-66, earlier this season in Tallahassee. FSU is looking for their first regular season series sweep of Wake Forest since 2011. FSU lost their last game at Lawrence Joel Veterans Memorial Coliseum. Leonard Hamilton is 15-12 ((15-11 at Florida State, 0-1 at Miami) against Wake Forest. Exceeding expectations: FSU was picked to finish seventh in the ACC this season by the preseason league poll. They exceeded those expectations by finishing fourth and earning a double-bye in next week's ACC Tournament. Noles247.com will provide updates in the comment section of this article.<doc-sep>Florida State closes out the regular season today in a noon tip at Wake Forest. The game will be broadcast on ACC ESPN Network Extra. The Seminoles opened as a 12-point favorite. FSU won, 88-66, at home in the team’s previous matchup this season. Both team’s seeding for next week’s ACC Tournament is set, with FSU at 4th and Wake Forest at 13th. The Demon Deacons have gone 11-18 (4-13 in the ACC) in Head Coach Danny Manning’s fifth year. Despite struggling throughout the season, Wake Forest nearly pulled off a shocking upset in their last game at Duke as the would-be game-winning shot rimmed out at the buzzer. Coach Hamilton said his team watched the end of that game in their locker room following the Virginia Tech game and know that this is not a team they can afford to overlook. One of the few things that Wake Forest does well statistically is crash the boards, especially at their own basket where they are 29th in the country in grabbing 34% of available offensive rebounds. That is partly due to having plenty of opportunities on missed shots as a bad shooting team. Their 45.1% effective field goal shooting ranks 341st in the nation. They are much better at the free throw line where they shoot 72.6%. The Deacons are led in scoring and assists by guard Brandon Childress with 14.8 and 4.1 per game, respectively. Freshman forward Jaylen Hoard adds 13.2 points a game and a team-best 7.8 rebounds. The Seminoles are the better team in this matchup, no doubt about it, but winning on the road in the ACC is never a given. FSU will get Wake Forest’s best effort as the Deacons hope to end their season on a high note by pulling off the upset. Be sure to chime in before and during the game in the comments section below.<doc-sep>The Seminoles didn’t start this game — or ACC play — very well this season. But boy have they shown the ability to close. No. 14 Florida State finished off a run for the ages on Saturday afternoon, topping the Wake Forest Demon Deacons 65-57 in Winston-Salem, NC. FSU already had clinched the 4-seed in the ACC Tourney, but avoided hurting its NCAA Tournament seed, while making some history along the way. The Seminoles got off to a sluggish start, spotting Wake an 8-0 lead, as the Deacs sunk a trio of circus shots to open play. WF sunk 8 free throws before FSU attempted any, and Florida State fell behind 14-2. Leonard Hamilton went to his bench earlier than usual, a move that helped spark the ’Noles, who tightened up on defense and increased their effort. Offensively, Florida State went to Christ Koumadje on the inside, and he responded by scoring 8 of FSU’s first 19 points to trim the Wake lead to 20-19, the closest the Seminoles would get in the first half, which closed at an ugly 31-24. How ineffective were the Florida State starters? Koumadje was the only one to score before the break. In the first stanza, FSU made 2-13 threes and just 4-9 free throws. Meanwhile, the Deacs went 16-16 from the charity stripe. The Florida State starters woke up a touch after intermission, but their alarm clock was initially drowned out by shrill home-court whistles. The Seminoles cut the lead to a lone point a few times, but any momentum was stemmed by foul calls. At one point in the second half, FSU was whistled 5 times in 38 seconds. Still, a PJ Savoy three finally knotted things at 45 with 9:14 left, the first tie since 0-0. That tie lasted until after the U8 timeout, when a Trent Forrest leaner gave Florida State its first lead, 47-45. That came as part of a defensively-keyed 18-0 ’Nole run to give FSU a 58-45 advantage with less than 5 minutes left, a lead that would get up to 15 as garbage time ensued with a couple of minutes remaining. The Seminole backcourt spearheaded the run, simply overwhelming a severely overmatched Wake team (11-19, 4-14) that has fought hard against Duke and now FSU down the stretch of a disappointing campaign. All 11 ’Noles who played found the scoring column, and Forrest led the way with 11 points and five assists (one more than WF had as a team). Mfiondu Kabengele posted a team-high 10 rebounds. FSU wound up outshooting the Deacs 43%-26%. The Seminoles (25-6, 13-5) finished by winning 12 of their final 13 ACC games, a regular-season school-record 13 ACC games on the season, and a regular-season program-best 25 overall games. Florida State now gets some nice time off, as it’ll begin ACC Tournament play in the quarterfinals on Thursday afternoon against an as-yet undetermined opponent.<doc-sep>(9) NC State (26-4, 13-4 ACC) defeated (22) Florida State (23-8, 11-7 ACC) 69-62 tonight in the quarterfinals of the ACC Tournament. Game Recap The game started out tight as neither team was able to maintain a large lead early. However, the Pack built a 10-4 lead after a pair of free throws from Elissa Cunane. FSU answered with an 8-2 run that was sparked by a triple from Kiah Gillespie. DD Rogers scored a layup to break the run and tie the score at 14. However, the Noles were able to go on another run, this time 8-1, to take a 22-15 lead. NC State answered with five quick points but Nicki Ekhomu nailed a pair of free throws to put FSU ahead 24-20 after the first quarter. The Wolfpack started the second quarter strong with a 7-0 run. Nicki Ekhomu broke the run with a jumper and the Pack’s lead was cut to 27-26. After that there was no scoring at all for over three minutes until Aislinn Konig hit a triple for the Pack. She followed it up with another three ball to put NC State up 33-26. From there the teams traded layups and Nausia Woolfolk hit one of two free throws to end the half with the Wolves up 35-31. The two teams started the third by trading baskets. With 8:22 left in the quarter Elissa Cunane grabbed a rebound. She swung her arms and elbowed Morgan Jones in the face. She was called for an offensive foul immediately and the officials went to the monitor and eventually determined that a technical foul should be added so FSU was awarded two shots and the ball. Ekhomu drained the free throws for the Noles to cut the Pack lead to 37-34. After that the two teams traded baskets until the Wolfpack made a move with about five minutes left in the period. NC State hit the Noles with a 10-0 run to end the third quarter and they took a 50-39 lead into the final stanza. Woolfolk opened the fourth with a triple to get FSU back in the scoring column. The teams exchanged baskets until Florida State went on a 6-0 run that was sparked by a Woolfolk steal and then a transition layup by Morgan Jones. Kiara Leslie stopped the run with a jumper and the Pack was up 58-51. Leslie’s jumper sparked the Pack to a 7-2 run. Kourtney Weber broke the run with a triple but FSU was still down 63-56 with about a minute left. Ekhomu followed with another three to cut the lead to 63-59. Leslie followed with a pair of free throws but Ekhomu responded with another triple to cut the lead to 65-62 with 37 seconds left. At this point FSU was reduced to fouling and the Pack hit four straight free throws to ice the game. Post Game Nicki Ekhomu was huge for FSU scoring 23 points (3-5 3PT, 8-8 FT) with five boards, four assists and a pair of steals. Nausia Woolfolk was the other Nole in double figures with 11 points. Kiah Gillespie just missed a double-double with eight points and 11 boards. Kourtney Weber had one of her best games hitting a pair of pressure threes and scoring six points. FSU had serious trouble all night dealing with the Wolfpack’s size in the paint. The 6’1 DD Rogers (16pts, 10reb) and the 6’5 Elissa Cunane (22pts, 9reb) had their way too often down low. This problem was exacerbated for FSU because Valencia Myers was in foul trouble all game picking up her second foul (and leaving the game) with 7:15 left in the first quarter. Defensively, this game was feast or famine for the Noles. They got several steals which led to easy transition buckets but they let the Pack shoot over 45% from the field and many of those points were layups down low. Overall the Noles played relatively well but they simply couldn’t handle the size that NC State brought to the table especially with Myers being limited to only 17 minutes due to foul trouble. Next Game FSU will return to Tallahassee to regroup while they await their NCAA Tournament destination. It is widely expected that the Seminoles will receive a six seed in the Tournament which will begin Friday, March 22nd. The NCAA Tournament Selection Show will be broadcast on Monday, March 18th.<doc-sep>
FSU closed out the regular season with a 65-57 win at Wake Forest. The Seminoles move to 25-6 overall and 13-5 in the ACC, setting a new program record for conference wins in a season. Above The Rim Wake Forest feasted from the free throw line, particularly during the 1st half in which their 31 points included 16-16 shooting from the free throw line while FSU went 4-9 (44.4%). Wake Forest finished the game 22-29 (76%) from the charity stripe while FSU shot 11-21 (52%). The Demon Deacons went 16-61 (26%) from the floor and 3-17 (18%) from three. The ‘Noles shot 24-56 (43%) overall and 6-21 (29%) from deep. The ‘Noles made scoring inside difficult, blocking 6 shots, and had 34 points in the paint to Wake Forest’s 18. The ‘Noles also outscored the Demon Deacons 21 to 12 on fast-breaks. As mentioned in the game preview, Wake Forest is a good rebounding team, especially on the offensive glass. They grabbed a total of 45 boards while FSU had 44. On the offensive glass, Wake Forest had 16 to FSU’s 11 but was unable to convert those into an advantage as they had 17 second-chance points to FSU’s 15. Court Level Christ Koumadje came two points shy of a double-double with 8 points, all of which came in the 1st half, and 10 rebounds. He added 3 blocked shots in his 20 minutes of playing time. In stretches, Koumadje dominated the post, and he kept FSU from completely falling apart in the 1st half scoring a third of the ‘Noles 24 points. Mfiondu Kabengele was also close to a double-double with 7 points and 9 rebounds. He also added 3 blocks. Kabengele ends the regular season as the team’s leading scorer at 13.3 points a game off the bench and is widely thought to be the frontrunner for ACC Sixth Man of the Year. Trent Forrest led the team in scoring with 11 points while adding 4 rebounds and 5 assists. Trent continues to lead the team with a steady hand, and stuffing the stat sheet, despite being hampered by turf toe for most of the year. The Seminoles showed off their depth as all 11 players that checked into the game scored at least 2 points, with only Forrest getting into double digits. Outside of the main six-man rotation, Raiquan Gray and Devin Vassell led the reserves with 4 points, and each added a steal. Up Next FSU will play in the Quarterfinals of the ACC Tournament on Thursday at 2:30pm, though it will likely tip a little later with another game being played at noon. The ‘Noles will face the winner of the second round game between 5-seed Virginia Tech and 12-seed Miami or 13-seed Wake Forest.