In its first ACC semifinal appearance since 2020 after upsetting No. 3 Syracuse on Thursday, No. 6 Florida State women's basketball fell to No. 2 NC State, 69-43, on Saturday at the Greensboro Coliseum in front of 10,488 fans.

"This exceeded a lot of people's expectations. Not ours," FSU head coach Brooke Wyckoff said.

"We were fired up to come here and knew what we wanted to do this week here. Just proud of the focus, the energy, the belief that my team put into this week."

Struggling to slow the Wolfpack

The Seminoles struggled to contain NC State's Aziaha James, who was 10-of-18 from the field and finished with a team-leading 23 points.

Mimi Collins dominated in the first half for NC State, scoring 11 of the Wolfpack's 20 points at the end of the first quarter. She finished with a double-double, 17 points and 13 rebounds.

FSU forward Makayla Timpson fell into foul trouble early, committing three fouls before halftime and limiting her time through the rest of the game. She'd finish with six points and nine rebounds.

It's the first time since late January that she failed to break double-figures in points or rebounds.

Guard Ta'Niya Latson finished with a team-leading 16 points, the only player to break double-scoring figures for the Seminoles. She shot 6-of-9 from the field.

"I'm super proud of our fight even though like you said we didn't get the shots that we really wanted," Latson said. "But we fought hard to get here in the first place. Fatigue set in a little bit, but I feel like we stuck together through most of it."

Forward Brianna "Snoop" Turnage nearly pushed double rebounding figures with nine on the day.

FSU shot a low 25% (17-of-68) from the field and 16.7% (4-of-24) from three-point range.

"We couldn't score the way that we would have liked," Wyckoff said. "I think that was the biggest issue initially and throughout a couple of the quarters, was just not being able to knock down some shots.

"But I thought we took good ones for the most part. That was our focus, to try and get some good shots, and they just didn't fall."

NC State dominated the Seminoles in the paint, out-scoring them 42-to-18 and out-rebounding them 58-to-32.

Preparing for NCAA tournament

FSU falls to 23-9 overall and has at least one more game left in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. The women's bracket will be announced Sunday, March 17 at 3 p.m. on ESPN.

The Seminoles are currently projected to face No. 9 Princeton as a No. 8 seed in the Columbia, South Carolina region.

"We ran up against a really good NC State team today, and hats off to them for the win," Wyckoff said

"But I'm just so proud of what we have accomplished, and I really felt like we grew this week as a team, and this will prepare us for more success in the future."

Jack Williams covers Florida State athletics for Tallahassee Democrat. Contact him via email at jwilliams@tallahassee.com or on X @jackgwilliams. 

This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: NC State ends FSU women's basketball ACC Tournament in semifinal loss