TALLAHASSEE, Fla. -- North Carolina State feels at home against Florida State. And the timing couldn't be better for embattled Wolfpack head coach Sidney Lowe in his four-year quest to make his alma mater relevant again in the Atlantic Coast Conference.
Freshman Scott Wood scored a career-high 31 points to lead NC State to an 88-81 upset of No. 25 FSU on Tuesday night, spoiling the ACC home opener for the Seminoles before 9,709 fans at the Tucker Center. The Wolfpack has won 16 of the last 20 games and seven of the last eight in Florida's state capital.
NC State (12-5, 1-2) snapped a two-game losing streak against an FSU team (13-4, 1-2) that had been generally stingy, allowing 58.2 points per game -- second best in the ACC -- but are now 1-3 when yielding 70 or more. The Wolfpack used a 16-1 run in the first half to grab the lead for good and built their largest advantage at 48-35 early in the second half.
"It's very important for our guys to have some type of success after playing as hard as we did and to understand this is what it's all about, this is how you have to play and be able to come out on the winning end," said Lowe, whose young team may have finally discovered the confidence and composure it takes to flourish in this conference.
"We've had some very tough games where we lost and we finished this one. This is what we didn't do before, we didn't finish the ballgames. One of the reasons we finished obviously was because we shot our free throws well down the stretch and that's something we hadn't done.
"I am just glad all the work they put in paid off. Winning on the road in the ACC is a very tough thing."
It was a good thing for Lowe, whose shaky job security continues to be a topic of conversation in Raleigh, N.C., where he was the point guard for the Wolfpack's 1983 NCAA championship team that was heralded for its Cinderella run under legendary head coach Jim Valvano.
For the fourth straight year under Lowe, the Wolfpack had started 0-2 in ACC play. In fact, NC State hasn't finished higher than 10th in the league under Lowe, whose only postseason experience was a NIT appearance in his rookie campaign with former head coach Herb Sendek's players.NC State also had dropped four of seven, including a 70-62 home loss to Virginia on Saturday in which the Wolfpack shot 40.4 percent and blew a 10-point second-half lead.
Most troubling in the defeat was a 16-for-26 effort from the free throw line, including seven key misses after halftime that dropped the Wolfpack's season-long free throw accuracy to 64.8 percent.
That wasn't a problem against the Seminoles.
NC State made 29 of 35 free throws in the game where 53 personal fouls were whistled, including 34 in the second half. Sophomore guard Julius Mays converted 10 consecutive free throws during FSU's late surge.
"This week of practice, after we lost to Virginia, we pretty much ran all practice and shot free throws," Mays smiled. "If we would have hit our free throws, we definitely could have won that game against Virginia. Tonight we were in another situation where we had to hit free throws and guys stepped up and hit them.
"We are real close. We are still young; each day we try to take steps towards where we want to be. I don't think we are where we want to be yet but I think every day we are taking big steps to get there. I feel like we are close though."
FSU wishes it knew the feeling.
The Seminoles closed to within 56-51 with 8:40 left on Deividas Dulkys' lone 3-point basket of the night and Wood -- who played 37 minutes -- countered with a jumper just inside the arc. FSU pulled within 86-81 with 24 seconds remaining but it was too little, too late, as they dropped their second consecutive league game in three days.
"We fought back but in reality we probably lost the game a lot worse than the score indicated," FSU coach Leonard Hamilton said.
"I just felt we just didn't come with that eye of the tiger that we've been known to play with. It seems like we've gotten ourselves in some type of mental state that we are going to have to snap out of. The ACC is unforgiving. I am very concerned that our ACC home opener wasn't met with the focus and execution I think it takes for us be to successful."
FSU simply had no answer for Wood, who entered with a seven-point average but made 10-of-15 field goals, highlighted by 7-of-11 treys. Wood said he felt good in early warm-ups, but then his shooting touch suddenly went cold.
The feeling didn't last long.
"When you get going, it's hard to explain," Wood said.
"It's like 'The Matrix' -- everything slows down and you just start knocking down shots. When your team needs it and they call your number, you have to hit them. A couple [shots], I just threw them up there. Once you have that confidence it feels like you can hit anything.
"We needed that ACC win bad. I know they (Seminoles) lost to Maryland in a tough battle but we needed this one bad. It feels good to finally get our first ACC win."
The game was the first of three straight against ranked opponents for the Wolfpack, who will host No. 24 Clemson on Saturday and eighth-ranked Duke Jan. 20.
"We are definitely getting better, and I think that's the main thing," Wood said.
"We let a couple slip away in Florida and Virginia games. I think as we practice and get after it, I think we just keep getting better and better and by the end of the ACC I think we will surprise a lot of people."
For FSU, the game represented the start of a three-game homestand. A concerned Hamilton knows his team must rediscover its mojo before Saturday's league game against Virginia Tech.
"This is the second game in a row where our defensive focus and intensity and didn't match our opponent's offensive execution," Hamilton said.
