Terquavion Smith scored 32 points as North Carolina State overwhelmed Florida State with an early barrage of 3-pointers on its way to a 94-66 win on Wednesday in Raleigh, N.C.
D.J. Burns Jr. tallied 15 points and Jarkel Joiner added 14 as the Wolfpack (18-5, 8-4 Atlantic Coast Conference) won for the seventh time in their past eight games.
Smith drained 3-pointers on the first two possessions for NC State, setting the tone for the long-distance assault as the Wolfpack made seven of their first eight attempts from deep.
Smith made 6 of 10 3-point attempts for NC State, which shot better from beyond the arc (12 of 20, 60 percent) than it did from inside the arc (20 of 47, 42.6 percent).
Cameron Corhen had 16 points and six rebounds to pace the Seminoles (7-16, 5-7), who lost their third game in a row. Darin Green Jr. scored 13 points and Matthew Cleveland added 12 points.
Florida State had no answer for the marksmanship of the Wolfpack. The Seminoles tried only three 3-point shots in the first half and didn’t make a trey until Green broke through with 15:23 to go.
Casey Morsell (10 points, seven rebounds) got in on the action early for NC State as he scored a transition three-point play and followed with a 3-pointer as the Wolfpack took a 12-2 lead just three minutes in.
NC State kicked it into high gear during an 18-0 run in which Joiner scored half the points. Burns contributed six points in the spree, and when Smith topped it off with another 3-pointer, the Wolfpack were up 30-4 less than 10 minutes into the game.
Later in the half, when Smith dropped another long-distance bomb, he improved to 5 of 6 from beyond the arc and NC State had its biggest lead of the half at 40-10.
Corhen steadied Florida State as he scored three straight baskets, part of a 10-3 run that closed the first half and whittled the deficit to 49-27.
After the break, Florida State pulled within 17 points on three occasions, but Smith had all the answers, including a pair of driving three-point plays as the Wolfpack pushed their lead to as many as 33 points.
–Field Level Media