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Stop me if you've heard this one before:

In a game it absolutely had to win against a team it should have beat, NC State was its own worst enemy in digging itself deeper into a hole on the wrong side of college basketball's NCAA tournament bubble.

This time it was a 71-68 loss at Boston College.

It's a result for which the Wolfpack should have no one but itself to blame, since it fell behind by double digits early, committed 16 turnovers and -- unlike the past two games at Miami and Syracuse -- failed to execute down the stretch with the game on the line.

But as it turned out, there was someone else to blame.

Despite all those shortcomings, including a dismal 2 for 19 performance from beyond the 3-point line, coach Kevin Keatts and his team still might have had a chance to steal a win if not for a blatantly missed call that led to the Eagles' clinching basket in the final seconds.

With State trailing by one with possession, BC's Steffon Mitchell clearly stepped out of bounds after taking the ball away from the Wolfpack's Jericole Hellems. He was then the first player to touch the ball after coming back in bounds, an action that should have resulted in a whistle from officials Kipp Kissinger, Jeff Clark, TIm Clougherty.

When it didn't, Mitchell passed the ball ahead to teammate Jarius Hamilton for a dunk that gave the Eagles a three-point lead.

Even though replays showed that the play should have been overturned, out-of-bounds plays are not reviewable.

Much to the chagrin of Keatts, who also said that both him and Hellems tried to call timeout before Mitchell ever got his hands on the ball.

"I'm very disappointed at the end of the game," Keatts said in his postgame comments on the Wolfpack radio network. "When we were scrimmaging on the floor, Jericole was hollering timeout. I was yelling timeout. I even signaled timeout. But it was never granted and that's disappointing.

"And then I haven't seen the play with Mitchell, but I thought he stepped out of bounds and came back in bounds. And that's though, because it takes you out of the opportunity to win the game. That one play didn't lose the game, but opportunities at the end, that's what it's about."

In all honesty, it should never have come down to an official's call -- or in this case, non-call -- at the end.

After playing two of its better offensive games against conference opponents in its previous two games, State (16-9, 7-7 ACC) sputtered from the beginning.

With point guard Markell Johnson playing only six minutes in the first half and State missing its first seven 3-point attempts before Devon Daniels finally connected on one, the Wolfpack fell behind by as many as 12 at 28-16 with 7 1/2 minutes left before intermission.

State was finally able to slow BC down after Keatts switched to a zone defense, something he rarely does, and eventually cut the deficit down to seven at halftime by making seven of its final nine field goal attempts in the period.

The Wolfpack carried that improved shooting into the second half, making 48.3 percent of its attempts over the second 20 minutes (14 of 29). But because of too many live ball turnovers that led to easy baskets and its inability to keep BC point guard Derryck Thornton from the rim, it took State until the 3:11 mark to finally catch up.

Thornton finished with 22 points, going 11 of 11 from the free throw line.

Even so, the Wolfpack still managed to pull ahead 66-64 on a layup by Johnson following a pretty spin move on the baseline.

But that was its last hurrah.

Hellems missed a trey, Johnson turned it over, leading to a transition layup by Hamilton, followed by he controversial non-call and just like that State found itself down by three with eight seconds to go.

Still with a chance to tie and send the game into overtime, the game came to a familiar end when the Wolfpack failed to execute on its final possession, leading a a forced 3-pointer from Bryce from the corner that hit the front of the rim.

Bryce, Hellems and Daniels all finished with 15 points to lead State, but it wasn't enough to prevent yet another blemish on an increasingly flawed postseason resume.

While the result isn't a death knell for the Wolfpack's NCAA tournament hopes, it puts even more significance than ever on the three remaining games against ACC frontrunners Duke and Florida State coming up over the next two weeks.

The first of those games will be Wednesday against the Blue Devils at PNC Arena.