Inconsistent Wolfpack Falls on the Road Again
BLACKSBURG, Va. -- NC State basketball coach Kevin Keatts likes to say that road wins, especially in the ACC, are like gold.
If that's the case, then the first 3 1/2 minutes of Saturday's matchup with Virginia Tech were fool's gold for the Wolfpack.
State made it look easy by hitting its first two 3-pointers and scoring the game's first 10 points in what appeared to be an extension of its strong finish against Notre Dame three days earlier.
But the momentum didn't last. And it never came back.
The Hokies answered right back with 12 unanswered points of their own following a timeout and never let up, sending the Wolfpack to a 72-58 defeat at Cassell Coliseum.
"We didn't expect to beat them by 50-0 or anything like that," said junior forward D.J. Funderburk, one of the few State players to have a productive performance with 18 points and nine rebounds on 7 of 13 shooting. "It's a game of runs. We tried to stay together and in the end we kind of fell apart.
"I'm pretty surprised," Funderburk siad. "We thought we had a little bit of a glue between us. We just have to get back in the gym and work on a couple of things and focus on staying together in crunch time."
While the Wolfpack did sputter to the finish, especially in contrast to the way it played the final 12 minutes against the Irish on Wednesday, the unravelling in Blacksburg began long before crunch time.
It started in familiar fashion, with Tech (12-4, 3-2 ACC) peppering State's defense with a barrage of 3-point baskets -- just as Clemson and Notre Dame had in the two previous games.
The Hokies had seven of them, on just 13 attempts -- to turn that early 10-point deficit into as a 10-point advantage with 2 1/2 minutes left in the period.
"We just kind of lost our intensity," junior guard Braxton Beverly said. "We've got to learn to keep that momentum going and not slip up that one little stretch."
It also needs to figure out how to play with more consistency.
The Wolfpack (11-5, 2-3) has been up and down from game-to-game all season, and Saturday's performance did nothing to halt that disturbing trend.
Markell Johnson is the most glaring example.
Coming off a career-high 27 points against Notre Dame in a game in which he picked his shorthanded team up, put it on his back and carried it to the finish line, the senior point guard took a major step back against the Hokies.
He did finish the game with nine assists. But he also made only two of his 14 field goal attempts (1 of 7 on 3-pointers) while committing five turnovers. It was the fourth time this season he's had at least that many miscues. State is 1-3 in those games.
But, as Keatts pointed out, Johnson was hardly the only one that struggled Saturday.
"He didn’t have a good game," Keatts said of Johnson, who finished with finished with five points "He knows that. One of the things that he and I have talked about is just being consistent.
"I don’t know if that has anything to do with Virginia Tech’s defense, but he didn’t have a great night. That being said, most of our guys didn’t. Markell’s not to blame. If you want to blame anybody, blame me because obviously our guys didn’t shoot the ball well."
That is an understatement.
While State did at least have a better showing than it did the last time it played the Hokies -- when it set an ACC record for the fewest points in the shot clock era and shot 16 percent from the floor in a nightmarish 47-24 loss at PNC Arena -- it still had its problems putting the ball in the basket. Especially from long range.
The Wolfpack made only four more 3-pointers after its hot start, going 6 of 30 from beyond the arc in the game. Besides Johnson's 1 of 7, Braxton Beverly went 1 of 6 and while Jericole Hellems went 2 of 7 and Pat Andree -- the only other State player in double figures with 11 points -- was 2 of 6..
And yet, they kept on shooting.
"We took about five or six threes in a row," Funderburk said. "They were open 3s. I applaud my teammates for taking the shots. I believe in them hitting those shots. But when it’s not falling for us, we’ve just got to go to something else. Maybe a different play, a screen, a roll. Something."
What made those shooting woes all the more frustrating is the fact that the Hokies left the door open for a Wolfpack rally by making only one of its first 12 shots to start the second half.
But State didn't take advantage.
"They weren’t playing well and we didn’t make shots," Keatts said. "Some of it was because some of the wrong guys got some shots. We didn’t finish well. I thought it was a great game back and forth and then when you look at it, I thought we missed some great shots down the stretch."
State got as close as one, at 46-46 on a Funderburk dunk with 12:07 remaining. But playing its fourth straight game without leading scorer and rebounder C.J. Bryce, that's as close as it would get.
The Hokies finally put the Wolfpack out of its misery with an 11-0 run that increased a 55-52 lead with 6:49 left to an insurmountable 66-52 cushion just over 2 1/2 minutes later.
"I think it has a lot to do with the leadership, with the guys that have been here," Beverly said when asked what went wrong at the end. "We’ve got to do a better job of keeping everybody together and not letting things get out of control at times.
"One big thing, getting C.J. back is going to be a big difference. He’s been out the last four games. Getting him back, making sure everybody is as healthy as can be. It’s mainly up to the guys that have been through it just to make sure we keep everybody together."
Add us as a preferred source on Google