Following back-to-back road losses, Florida State will look to right the ship on Saturday as it returns home to face N.C. State. The Seminoles were defeated by Pittsburgh on Wednesday after falling to Syracuse on Sunday night in the Carrier Dome.
N.C. State will arrive with a record of 12-6 and should come in playing with a lot of confidence. The Wolfpack, who are 3-2 in conference play, handed Duke its first loss of the season on Sunday and followed that up with a narrow 81-79 defeat at the hands of rival North Carolina on Wednesday.
N.C. State is proving to be a very good offensive team as the Wolfpack rank in the top 100 nationally both in scoring and in field goal percentage. Leading the charge for the guys from Raleigh has been a trio of guards in Trevor Lacey, Ralston Turner and Anthony Barber.
Lacey, a junior and Alabama transfer, leads the team averaging over 17 points-per-game. Lacey is shooting 49 percent from the floor and has scored at least 20 points seven times this season. Lacey is the team’s second leading assist man with better than three per game while Turner is scoring nearly 14 points-per-game.
Turner, a senior, leads the team with 48 3-points made on the year. Barber is scoring 11 points-per-game for the Wolfpack and leads the squad with 3.6 assists-per-game. N.C. State relies heavily on its guards, but is a very good rebounding team, ranking 44th nationally in that category. The Seminoles have struggled against teams that are strong inside.
The Florida State backcourt will definitely have its work cut out, but Xavier Rathan-Mayes and Devon Bookert have combined to average over 22 points and seven assists this season. Rathan-Mayes, who averages 12.3 points, leads the team with 4.4 assists-per-game, which would be the highest average for any Seminole in over a decade.
Bookert scores just over 10 points and dishes out just under three assists each time out. The junior from Alaska has made 24 of the Seminoles’ 63 3-pointers this season.
Florida State will hope for a similar effort from the one forward Phil Cofer gave Wednesday against Pittsburgh as the 6’8″ freshman scored a career-high 21 points and grabbed a team-high 11 rebounds. Cofer is shooting 54 percent from the field, scoring nearly eight points per contest and ranking second on the team with 5.2 rebounds-per-game in just over 22 minutes.
Junior Montay Brandon leads the Seminoles in both scoring and rebounding. Brandon averages better than 13 points and 5.5 rebounds-per-game. He’s been very efficient from the field, shooting better than 56 percent.
The Seminoles will look to remain above .500 for the season and undefeated at home in ACC play on Saturday as they host the Wolfpack. Florida State comes in with a record of 9-8 overall and just 1-3 in conference.
Florida State was defeated by N.C. State when the teams met in Raleigh last season by a 74-70 margin. Okaro White’s 20 points weren’t enough to earn FSU the victory as the Seminoles had no answer for T.J. Warren, who scored 30 to pace the Wolfpack.
Saturday’s contest in Tallahassee is slated to begin at 1:30 P.M. eastern time and will be shown on the ACC Network.
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