NC State men’s basketball’s regular season ended Saturday, March 5 with a 89-76 loss at Florida State. Outperformed in nearly every major statistical metric, the Wolfpack never led as the Seminoles built a small advantage early and never looked back.

The loss gives the Wolfpack (11-20, 4-16 ACC) its first ever 20 loss season and is head coach Kevin Keatts’ first losing season. After posting a 45-24 record over his first two years at NC State, Keatts is now 24-30 his last two, but has at least one more year to turn the program around, according to The News & Observer.

Nearly 12 minutes into the game, the Seminoles (17-13, 10-10 ACC) raced out to an eight-point lead by out-rebounding and out-hustling NC State. The Seminoles held a plus-3 rebounding margin, and five second chance points to none for NC State.

Florida State routinely got itself easy looks in transition while NC State struggled to get all five players set, leading to the team shooting 15 percentage points better than the Wolfpack.

“We gave up a lot of transition points,” said freshman guard Terquavion Smith. “That was something we talked about heavy in film and something that we stressed to go over every day leading up to this game. I think we gave up at least 20+ transition points, so that was probably one of the main things [that caused the loss].”

As he’s done more and more over the past few games, Smith took over the offense for NC State as redshirt sophomore guard Dereon Seabron struggled. Smith had over half NC State’s points in the first half, putting up 19 on 4-of-7 shooting from deep. No other scorer in the game had double-digit points in the half.

The Seminoles, by contrast, got things done by spreading the ball around. Nine different Florida State players got at least one bucket in the opening half, with six players scoring at least five points. That balanced offense — which boasted 26 bench points to NC State’s four— allowed the Noles to withstand Smith’s individual effort, heading into the break with a 46-35 lead.

The second half only offered more of the same. Though the Wolfpack threatened at times, it never worked the Noles’ lead to below nine points. At its maximum, they led by 17. 

Nothing was easy for the Wolfpack, especially in the paint. The team missed 14 layups and had nine shots blocked. With only Smith to worry about, FSU seemed content to let NC State shoot from the outside, packing it into the paint and forcing the Wolfpack to make shots. The strategy worked, as players not named Smith or Hellems shot 5 of 22 from the field.

“These guys, they switch — all one to five — so there are no screening angles, and so it forces you to make a lot of one on one plays,” Keatts said. “Our goal going into the game was to try to take advantage of some mismatches. And if they come on strong side, make the right play. I thought we made the right play [sometimes], sometimes we didn’t.”

In his final regular season game in an NC State uniform, senior forward Jericole Hellems was a willing shooter for the Wolfpack, taking 14 shots and scoring 21 points, including five 3s. Hellems also received the lone technical in the game.

Having Smith on the court saved NC State from embarrassment, as the freshman phenom went off for 30 points to end the night. With his five 3s, Smith has the third-most 3-pointers made in a season in NC State history.

“He’s been great,” Keatts said. “I couldn’t have asked for anything else. He’s a competitor. He works hard every day. He weighs 160 pounds, and he’s fearless. I’m glad he’s on my team. He’s someone that you can continue to build around.”

Seabron got going to a certain extent in the second stanza, shooting just 3 for 8 from the field but forcing his way to the line and making seven free throws. He ultimately finished with 17, shooting 3 of 12 from the field.

The Wolfpack put forth one final push towards the end of the game, forcing a FSU turnover down just nine points with a little over two minutes left, but a steal leading to highlight-reel poster dunk by Anthony Polite ended that momentum, and the Seminoles cruised to victory.

Next up, NC State plays Clemson in the ACC Tournament, according to WRAL’s Joe Giglio. That game tips at 4:30 p.m. on Tuesday, March 8.

“There are going to be 10 teams that go to Brooklyn and feel like they have to win the tournament to have the opportunity to go to the Big Dance,” Keatts said. “Certainly we haven’t had the best season, but this is what tournaments are all about.”