ACC Hoops Wrap-up: Florida State 4-1 in ACC after beating Miami, 55-53

ACC Men

Seminoles Edge Miami, 55-53: Florida State missed its first 10 shots but rallied from a 10-point second-half deficit, scoring 11 consecutive points down the stretch and beating the Miami Hurricanes 55-53 Wednesday night.

Durand Scott missed driving shots on back-to-back possessions in the final 10 seconds for Miami.

Florida State (14-5 overall, 4-1 Atlantic Coast Conference) is off to its best start in the league since 1993. That includes a win over then-No. 1 Duke on Jan. 12.

Miami (12-6, 1-3) shot 1 for 8 over the final 6 1/2 minutes and lost for the first time in nine home games this season. Malcolm Grant scored 20 for the Hurricanes.

Florida State won with only one player in double figures - Terrance Shannon had 10. The game was nearly 10 minutes old before the Seminoles sank a basket, but they trailed only 11-7 because of Miami's sputtering.

Deividas Dulkys' four-point play started the 11-0 run and cut the margin to 48-47. Derwin Kitchen's driving layup gave the Seminoles their first lead, 49-48, and they led the rest of the way.

Jackson Leads BC Past Virginia, 70-67: Junior Reggie Jackson scored 16 points, including seven points in the final four minutes, to lead Boston College to a 70-67 ACC victory over Virginia before 4,628 fans in Conte Forum at Chestnut Hill, MA.

Senior Joe Trapani scored a game-high 18 points for the victors, while classmates Biko Paris (12 points) and Corey Raji (10 points) also notched double-digit point totals.

The Eagles shot 8-for-8 from the foul line in the final 90 seconds to snap a 62-62 tie and earn their fourth league win of the season. Paris and Raji each sank two free throws to give BC a 66-62 lead, and after Virginia's Assane Sene converted an offensive rebound, Jackson hit the first two free throws with 16.0 seconds left to give the home team a 68-64 advantage.

Virginia's Sammy Zeglinski trimmed the margin to one point with a three-pointer with 4.6 seconds to play, and then Jackson hit two more free throws with 2.8 seconds left to give BC a 70-67 cushion.

A last-second Cavalier three-point attempt to tie the game fell well short.

Virginia (10-8, 1-3 ACC) fought back to twice tie the game - 41-41 and 48-48 - before taking its first lead since early in the contest (11-8 with 11:29 left in the first half) at 58-57 with 6:43 to play. A Raji jumper was followed by a Virginia free throw that knotted the score at 58-58, and then Jackson canned a long-range jumper to give BC a three-point lead and make him the 39th player in school history to score 1,000 points.

No. 4 Duke Pushes Past NC State, 92-78: Nolan Smith scored 22 points to help No. 4 Duke beat N.C. State 92-78 on Wednesday night, avenging last season's surprising road loss to the Wolfpack.

Kyle Singler added 18 points for the Blue Devils (17-1, 4-1 Atlantic Coast Conference), who dominated early to lead by 14 at halftime then turned away a second-half comeback to extend their recent dominance in the series. Duke has won 29 of 34 meetings with N.C. State (11-7, 1-3) since 1995 and improved to 5-2 against Sidney Lowe's Wolfpack.

Miles Plumlee came off the bench to score 11 points and add eight rebounds for Duke.

NC State earned a surprisingly easy 88-74 win against the Blue Devils last season in which Tracy Smith scored 23 points and the Wolfpack shot 58 percent. The Blue Devils held the Wolfpack to 22 percent shooting in the first half to build a double-digit lead.

Then, after N.C. State closed within five, Smith led a 7-0 spurt that took back control.

Georgia Tech Cruises Past Wake Forest, 74-39: Glen Rice Jr. scored 21 points, Iman Shumpert had 20 and Georgia Tech cruised to its biggest win ever in the Atlantic Coast Conference, beating Wake Forest 74-39 Wednesday night.

The Yellow Jackets (9-8, 2-2) didn't have a letdown coming off a 78-58 win over North Carolina. They led by as many as 42 and eclipsed their previous mark for largest conference win, a 31-point blowout of Florida State in 2002.

Of course, it helped to be playing Wake Forest (7-12, 0-4), which lost for the eighth time in nine games and hasn't come close in ACC play, losing by an average of 26 points.

Wake Forest made just 14 of 54 shots (26 percent) from the field, 9 of 26 (35 percent) at the foul line and had no one in double figures.

ACC Women

Yellow Jackets Survive For 54-46 Win At Wake Forest: It wasn't always pretty, but the Georgia Tech women's basketball team improved to 4-0 in the ACC for the first time ever with a 54-46 win at Wake Forest.

Leading the way for the Jackets was freshman Tyaunna Marshall, who tallied 17 points, 15 of which came in the second half. With the win, Tech improves to 16-4 overall and 4-0 in league play, while the Demon Deacons fall to 10-9 overall and 1-2 in the ACC.

"First I want to give credit to Wake Forest," head coach MaChelle Joseph said. "I thought they made us play defense for 28-30 seconds on every single possession. That wore us down on the offensive end and they kept us from running. There's no doubt the strength of our team is our transition game. I was proud of our team for the way we weathered the storm and gutted it out at the end. "

The first half was a game of runs and each would put together double-digit runs over the opening eight minutes. The Jackets opened the game with a 14-0 run to the 15:11 mark, but the Demon Deacons would answer with a 13-0 run of their own to the 12:04 point of the first half.

Tech ended the Deacs' run with its second 14-0 run of the first 20 minutes and making the score 27-15 with 5:47 left in the half. Again, Wake Forest would not quit and put together an 11-0 run to end the half, capped by a Chelsea Douglas three with three seconds left, making the halftime score 27-24 in favor of Tech.

"Wake plays hard and they make you play ugly," Joseph said. "They're good on the defensive end, they're good on the offensive end and they have a lot of depth. I was pleased with the way Ty Marshall stepped up in the second half and put us on her back on the offensive end and made some key plays. MeMe Walthour hitting that three sort of separated us at the end in the last couple of minutes."

The Jackets went over 14 minutes without a field goal, from the 7:02 point of the first half to the 12:27 point of the second half. Over that span, the Demon Deacons built a 35-28 lead, the only Jacket point being a Sasha Goodlett free throw at 14:25. Tech would take the lead back as Marshall drove down the lane and floated a runner in to put Tech up 39-38 at the 8:06 mark.

The Demon Deacons would take one lead and tie the game twice in the next three minutes. The three-pointer Joseph referenced from Walthour came with 4:03 remaining and put the Jackets up for good.

No. 10 UNC Loses To No. 2 Connecticut 83-57: Italee Lucas scored 15 points to lead the Tar Heels, who played the Huskies relatively even for the rest of the half, but it was not enough to keep up with UConn which pulled away from 10th-ranked North Carolin 83-57.

Tiffany Hayes scored 29 points to lead No. 2 Connecticut.

Maya Moore added 26 for the Huskies (17-1), who scored the game's first eight points to give themselves a comfortable margin then scored the first 12 of the second half to blow the game open. The Huskies shot 49 percent despite cooling off late, knocking down seemingly every early open look - and there were plenty - and even the ones when the Tar Heels (16-2) managed to get a hand in the shooter's face.