TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — After leading all but five members of his No. 3 North Carolina squad off the court at the Tucker Center on Saturday with 14 seconds still remaining on the clock, UNC coach Roy Williams had nothing to say to his team in the locker room.
And as far as UNC guard Dexter Strickland was concerned, following a 90-57 loss to Florida State, there wasn’t really anything that needed to be said.
“We said our prayer, and that was it,” Strickland said. “I think everybody knew what we did and what we did wrong and what we have to do to get better.”
The 33-point loss to the Seminoles (11-6, 2-1 ACC) was the worst loss for North Carolina (15-3, 2-1 ACC) since Maryland beat UNC 96-56 on February 22, 2003.
And from the get-go on Saturday, the Tar Heels knew they didn’t have an easy road ahead of them.
Florida State came into Saturday’s game shooting 30.2 percent from behind the arc, the worst percentage in the ACC.
But in the first three minutes of Saturday’s game, the Seminoles hit three of their first four 3-pointers to grab an early 9-2 lead.
Senior guard Deividas Dulkys shattered his previous career-high of 22 points with a 32-point performance against the Tar Heels. Dulkys, who came into the game averaging just 6.2 points per game for the Seminoles, shot 86 percent from the field against UNC, making 8-of-10 from long range.
“We were giving him wide open shots,” guard Kendall Marshall said. “When you have a guy that basically, can sit there, set his feet, look down at the floor, go up and shoot, it’s going to be hard to guard people.