The New Year has been kind to Florida State men's basketball.

The Seminoles took down ACC rival Wake Forest 87-82 at the Donald L. Tucker Civic Center Tuesday in front of 5,368 fans.

FSU (9-6, 3-1 ACC) concluded its seven-game homestand with a 5-2 mark, including three straight conference wins to kick off the new year. The loss snapped a nine-game winning streak for the Demon Deacons (11-4, 3-1), spanning back to November 24.

Only UNC and NC State entered the day unbeaten in conference play. The Tar Heels and Wolfpack play at 8 p.m. Wednesday.

FSU leads the all-time series 30-28, including 18-7 at Donald L. Tucker Civic Center. The Seminoles led by as many as 12 points (27-15) in the first half and pushed the lead to 13 in the second half.

Jamir Watkins led FSU with 19 points, nine assists and three rebounds. He shot 11 for 11 from the free throw line and the Seminoles shot 24-of-30 as a team. The nine assists for Watkins were a career-high.

Darin Green Jr. chipped in four 3-pointers and finished with 17 points. Baba Miller added a career-high 14 points and tied a career-best of three blocked shots.

All 11 players who entered the game for FSU scored at least two points.

"I've always said we wanted to develop a team that won games by committee," FSU head coach Leonard Hamilton said. "Because that's a different style than what most people in ACC are used to. That works for us."

Cameron Hildreth led the Demon Deacons with 25 points and Kevin Miller added 21.

Here are our takeaways from the game.

FSU speeds up, turns over Wake Forest

The Demon Deacons entered Tuesday's contest averaging just 10.4 turnovers per game and nine per game in three conference games.

FSU applied early pressure and sped up the guards for Wake Forest into making bad plays and overthrows.

Wake Forest turned the ball over 20 times to just 11 assists for the contest. In an overtime win against Miami last week, the Demon Deacons had 14 assists and 10 turnovers.

"They did a really, really good job of speeding us up on offense the entire game with the aggressiveness, the length and switching," Wake Forest head coach Steve Forbes said. "They made it very difficult for us to get a catch on offense which led to over-dribbling, and trying to make plays for ourselves instead of moving the ball."

The Demon Deacons trailed by as many as 12 in the first half but were able to take the lead and trailed by one at halftime. The Seminoles caused a spell of four straight turnovers and five in six possessions to start the second half to keep Wake Forest from gaining rhythm and taking over the game.

FSU finished with 22 points off the 20 turnovers. Green tied his career high with five steals. One of them came late in the game which he turned into an easy dunk in transition to push the FSU lead to 10.

"The coaches really emphasize creating offense out of defense," Watkins said "We're starting to realize that we can really affect the game in a positive way just getting steals, blocks and energy plays."

Free throw shooting

The Seminoles shot 24-of-30 from the free throw line, good for 80% overall. They had to knock down several big shots from the charity stripe to clinch the victory in the final minute.

FSU shot just 18 of 29 (62%) from the free throw line in a 77-74 victory over Virginia Tech on Saturday, making the game closer than it needed to be at the end.

"We shot at a high clip," Hamilton said. "There were a couple of games where we didn't do that. We put a lot more emphasis on free throws in practice. But that's an individual mindset. You have to have the confidence to walk up to the line, everybody is watching you."

Warley knocked down 6 of his 8 free throws, while Miller was 4 for 6. But the best performance came from Watkins.

"I felt he was very important because we know, we're usually bigger than most of the teams that we play. So we know that we're going to get to a line a lot," Watkins said. "And that's something coach was honest about in practice so that we start taking this very more seriously.

"Because we know that can help us in a big stretch and big games like this."

Up next:

The Seminoles play their first true road contest since Dec. 2 at North Carolina when they travel to Notre Dame on Saturday for a 2:15 p.m. tipoff.

Reach Ehsan Kassim at ekassim@gannett.com or follow him on Twitter at @Ehsan_Kassim. You can also follow our coverage on Facebook (NoleSports), Instagram (tlhnolesports) and YouTube channel (NoleSportsTD).

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This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: FSU men's basketball defeats ACC rival Wake Forest 87-82