How a Slow Start Doomed NC State Against Virginia
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RALEIGH — NC State dropped the second game of ACC play at home to No. 21 Virginia, falling to 10-5 overall and 1-1 in the league. After showing improved urgency against Ole Miss and Wake Forest in the previous two wins, the Wolfpack looked sluggish at the start of Saturday’s loss. While a slow start can be overcome, Saturday felt different for NC State.
Unfortunately for Will Wade and his team, the Cavaliers were on point early and used the Pack’s woes as a springboard into a large lead. After the first 20 minutes, Virginia led the Wolfpack by 20, ultimately winning the game by 15.
A Cavalier blitz
NC State failed to score a basket in the first three minutes of the game, while Virginia shot out to a 6-0 lead. Senior guard Quadir Copeland buried an open 3-pointer on the wing, one of the only clean looks from range for the Wolfpack in the entire game. Virginia, which shot an ugly 36% from the field and 22% from beyond the arc in its loss to Virginia Tech on Wednesday, took advantage as the Pack floundered.
“Teams like that, you’ve got to hop on them first. You’ve got to punch first,” NC State guard Alyn Breed said. “You can’t let them get up early and see the rim get bigger early like that. We were definitely supposed to punch first against them.”
Sam Lewis is playing unconscious 😵💫
— Virginia Men's Basketball (@UVAMensHoops) January 3, 2026
15 points with 5 min left in the first half
📺@espn
🔹⚔️🔸#GoHoos pic.twitter.com/zLM58dJzyw
The Cavaliers went on a 20-7 run over the final eight minutes of the half. The Wolfpack couldn’t contain junior guard Sam Lewis, who scored 20 of his 23 points in the first half. However, that was more a product of how NC State chose to defend Virginia in the opening 20 minutes than his own shooting ability, as many of his looks were clean.
“The first half, we weren’t switching one through five. We were keeping our bigs on their bigs to try to rebound it,” Wade said. “They were putting us in rotation and that’s how Lewis was able to get loose… He was the guy in the corner when they were throwing the hammer passes.”
The Cavaliers finished the first half shooting 50% from the field and went 8-for-19 from beyond the arc, while NC State dealt with massive issues on the offensive end.
Offensive issues
Virginia’s starting forwards, Thijs De Ridder and Johann Grünloh, posed a major size issue for the undersized Wolfpack starting five. Grünloh, a 7-footer, was particularly effective in deterring NC State from driving successfully throughout the game. However, Wade thought there were other issues with the offense that contributed to a slow start.
“Against a team like Virginia, they’ve got the big in drop down at the restricted arc, you have to drive the first (forward), kick it out, and then drive the second (forward),” Wade said. “Sometimes the lane opens up and you can lay it in or you can kick it out for more open looks… To my naked eye during the game, the looks were not great.”
REJECTED 🙅♂️ by Johann
— Virginia Men's Basketball (@UVAMensHoops) January 3, 2026
📺 @espn
🔹⚔️🔸#GoHoos pic.twitter.com/sJZuqdoOQJ
The Wolfpack scored just 20 points in the first half, the lowest since a 33-point effort at the Southwest Maui Invitational against Seton Hall. The Pirates were the last oversized shot-blocking team the Wolfpack faced and created a similar sense of discumbobulation within NC State’s offense in that loss.
Virginia’s full-court pressure, something NC State normally uses to dictate games itself on the defensive end, helped with that process of making the Wolfpack’s offense disjointed. Once the hole was 20 points deep, the pressure milked time and energy for NC State, making what would’ve been a miraculous comeback even more unlikely.
The recovery process
The loss exposed some issues for NC State and also showed the team that it can’t afford to fall behind against teams that can match, or in Virginia’s case, outpace the Wolfpack from 3-point range. The Pack made just eight field goals and one 3-pointer in the first half, aiding Virginia as it fired away from beyond the arc. Even Cavalier head coach Ryan Odom knew that wasn’t the best of the Pack.
“We have a ton of respect for Coach Wade and NC State. Certainly, that was not their A-game tonight,” Odom said.
The Wolfpack will re-evaluate some of the issues it showed against Virginia before taking on Boston College on Tuesday, the start of a stretch of 4 out of the next five games on the road.
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Tucker Sennett graduated summa cum laude with a B.A. in Sports Journalism from the esteemed Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University. A former basketball player, he has gained valuable experience working at Cronkite News and brings a deep passion for sports and reporting to his role as the NC State Wolfpack Beat Writer On SI.
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