Whisper helps Bacon bring home win for Noles

Dean Koontz, the noted Sci-Fi suspense author, once wrote that fear shouts and terror whispers.

There’s a lot of truth in that statement. If you ever want to really get someone’s attention, whisper. Bring it in close and whisper.

That’s the approach Florida State coach Leonard Hamilton employed with his star player — Dwayne Bacon. At halftime of Thursday’s ACC Tournament quarterfinal-round game, Bacon, a secondteam all-conference pick, played a half to forget.

He had taken and missed all five of his shots. He had no assists. He had one turnover. The Seminoles, perhaps the most underappreciated No. 2 seed in any power conference tourney, trailed Virginia Tech by two.

“I whispered in his ear at halftime and told him to be as aggressive as he could the second half,’’ Hamilton said. “That’s the only thing I said to him, wanted him to be aggressive, because those shots would start falling.’’

Bacon’s shots fell at the most opportune time and the Seminoles dropped the Hokies, 74-68, to advance to Friday night’s semifinal against Notre Dame. Bacon scored 15 of his team-high 17 points after Hamilton played the role of hoops whisperer.

“Yeah, a couple players told me, this is your half, it’s time to will it in and let’s get this win,’’ Bacon said. “We were down two, so it wasn’t too bad when we came back from halftime. We had a chance to fight back, and that’s what we came out and did.’’

Bacon was especially effective during an 18-1 run that saw the Noles (25-7) turn a 52-50 deficit into a 68-53 lead. Bacon’s first field goal, a short jumper, tied the score at 52-52. His jumper with 4:28 left made it 67-53 and his free throw 27 seconds later gave FSU a 15-point lead that even the scrappy Hokies (22-10) couldn’t erase.

“I wasn’t concerned at all,’’ Hamilton said of Bacon’s first-half slump.

Of course he wasn’t. He just needed to whisper in his star’s ear.