Senior guard Deividas Dulkys picked a great day to have a career game.

In front of a national TV audience with ESPN CollegeGameday in attendance, Dulkys keyed a major upset for Florida State, putting up a career-high 32 points as the Seminoles blew out third-ranked North Carolina 90-57 on Saturday.

After making a personal-best 28 consecutive shots in the morning shootaround, Dulkys knew he might be in for a good day. But nobody knew just how good.

The shooting guard spent the better part of the afternoon raining threes from behind the arc, dropping daggers on UNC and keeping the capacity crowd at the Donald Tucker Center raucous. By the end of the afternoon, he was 8 for 10 from long range.

“It [felt] awesome. Everyone performed the way we’re capable of,” Dulkys said. “My teammates looked for me when I got hot, and we just kept rolling.”

The Seminoles came out on fire and stayed that way for most of the game, jumping to a 9-2 lead behind stellar three-point shooting and shooting 44 percent from behind the arc on the day.

“We’ve had a lot of ups and downs throughout this year, but that’s a team out there [UNC] that we felt like in the locker room [we could beat],” senior guard Luke Loucks said.

The Seminoles were confident coming into Saturday, but they knew they had a tall task. After going a disappointing 10-6 to start the season, Florida State needed a signature win to help add legitimacy to its NCAA Tournament hopes.

The Seminoles accomplished that and more. Behind a suffocating defense and one of their best offensive outputs of the season, the Seminoles led the Tar Heels for the majority of the game and really opened things up in the second half.

But heading into halftime the Seminoles’ lead looked tenuous at best, with UNC just eight points behind.

“We were up by eight at halftime, but that’s the thing, they can come right out and hit four shots,” FSU junior guard Michael Snaer said. “We didn’t take that as any kind of cushion because it could be over like that, so we had to come out and keep executing and keep coming at them right out [of] the gates.”

The Seminoles did just that, and UNC never found its rhythm in the second half, as Dulkys, sophomore Okaro White (12 points, 10 rebounds), Snaer (17 points, five rebounds, three assists) and the rest of the Seminoles worked over the Tar Heels.

“Princeton’s defense must be a whole heck of a lot better than ours if they can hold them to 10 points in a half,” UNC coach Roy Williams said.

The Seminoles led by as many as 33 points during the second half while UNC struggled to get any sort of offensive rhythm going.

Coming into the game many expected the opposite result. UNC was considered by many across the country to be the nation’s top team. They didn’t look the part Saturday.

Instead, it was the Seminoles who showed discipline on offense and defense and were able to control the tempo of the game throughout.

UNC stars Harrison Barnes and John Henson were largely held in check by an aggressive Florida State defense, combining for just 25 points. For the day, UNC shot just 37 percent and turned the ball over 22 times.

Florida State knows it needs a consistent effort to be successful the rest of the season. But after Saturday’s upset, FSU also knows its potential. That confidence might be key.

“If we get all the sums of our parts working together, then we can be a pretty decent team here as we go through the ACC,” FSU coach Leonard Hamilton said. “But we haven’t accomplished anything yet.”