Jan. 25, 2012

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WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. - Despite leading the game early and getting double-digit scoring efforts from three players, Wake Forest fell to No. 23 Florida State, 75-52, on Wednesday night at the Lawrence Joel Coliseum.

Junior guard C.J. Harris scored a team-high 16 points for the Deacons (11-9, 2-4 ACC) and was a perfect 6-of-6 from the free throw line. Harris has scored in double figures in every game he has played in this season (19 games).

Senior forward Nikita Mescheriakov fell just short of his career-high mark in points, notching 13 on 4-of-9 shooting while going 4-of-5 from the free throw line. Sophomore Tony Chennault rounded out the trio of Deacs in double figures, scoring 11 points and dishing out three assists.

Despite fouling out with three minutes to play, sophomore Travis McKie led Wake Forest in rebounding, hauling in nine in just 32 minutes on the court.

Senior Ty Walker was a force in the paint on the defensive end, tallying four blocks and four rebounds in just 15 minutes. However, Walker suffered a blow to the head midway through the first half and was forced to sit out the second half with a concussion.

As a team, the Demon Deacons shot just 15-of-43 (34.9 percent) from the floor. They fared much better from the free throw line, knocking down 17 of their 20 tries to finish at 85 percent - their third-best mark of the season.

Florida State's big men inside were a decisive factor in the contest, outscoring Wake 40-16 in the paint. The Seminoles (14-6, 5-1 ACC) were paced by Michael Snaer, who led all scorers with 18 points and knocked down all four of his three-point attempts.

Both teams came out sloppy and the Deacs led 2-0 on a pair of free throws by Harris until the Seminoles' first basket came at the 16:43 mark on a Xavier Gibson dunk. Gibson was charged with a technical foul on the play, however, which allowed Harris to add two more freebies from the line.

Wake pushed its lead to five after a three-point bucket from Mescheriakov, but Florida State began to claw back from there. Turning to their inside game, they went on an 8-2 run over a four-minute span, punctuated by a layup from Deividas Dulkys, to knot the game at 10.

The Seminoles grabbed their first lead of the night just over a minute later on a high-arcing shot by Luke Loucks to make it 13-12 with 9:57 to play in the half. They would not relinquish that advantage for the rest of the half.

The lead stretched to 29-20 with 1:54 remaining, but the Deacs came back strong to close out the half. Mescheriakov knocked down three consecutive free throws to cut the lead to six, 29-23, heading into the locker room.

Buoyed by five points from Harris, Wake Forest opened the second half with a 7-3 run to cut the lead to two at the 17:11 mark. After a sluggish start, Florida State turned away the Deacon charge with nine unanswered points over the next four minutes to build its biggest lead of the contest to that point, 41-30.

Using that momentum, the Seminoles did not let up. They built an 18-point lead with 9:46 remaining following a short jumper by Jon Kreft that made it 50-32.

The Deacs pushed for a comeback attempt, slashing the lead to 13 after Mescheriakov's three-point play at the 7:26 mark, but Florida State essentially put the game out of reach with back-to-back three-pointers from Dulkys and Ian Miller to build a 60-41 advantage.

Florida State's bench depth also proved problematic for the Deacons, who were outscored 30-9 in the category. 11 different players scored for the Seminoles compared to just six for the Demon Deacons.

Snaer was joined in double figures by Okaro White (11 points) and Gibson (10 points) for the Seminoles. Florida State was a stellar 68 percent (17-of-25) in field goal percentage during the second half, finishing at 50.9 percent (29-of-57) for the game. They also drained eight of their 16 three-pointers on the night to finish at an even 50 percent.

Wake Forest will return to the court at 12:00 p.m. on Saturday afternoon, Jan. 28, as the team travels to Clemson, S.C., to take on the Tigers inside the historically tough Littlejohn Coliseum. The matchup will be televised on the ACC Sports Network as well as broadcast by the Wake Forest Sports Network from IMG College.

Postgame Press Conference Video: