The season-long trends and issues continued for NC State at California on Wednesday.
California finished strong to defeat NC State 74-62 in front of 3,139 fans at Haas Pavillon in Berkeley, Calif..
NC State lost its seventh straight game, were swept by California, and are now 0-8 playing away from the Lenovo Center.
The usual pattern of being within two possessions with five minutes left held true once again. NC State senior shooting guard Jayden Taylor hit a 3-pointer to make it 62-57 Cal with 6:32 left. When the clock got to under five minutes left in the game, the Bears went on a 10-0 run to open up a 72-57 lead with 1:37 left, and that was a wrap.
California senior point guard Jovan Blacksher proved to be the difference, but he had help. Blacksher scored 15 of his team-high 18 points in the first half.
What proved the difference in the second half was the additions of Air Force forward transfer Rytis Petraitis and Minnesota power forward transfer Joshua Ola-Joseph. The latter proved to be a matchup problem with 13 points and two three-pointers.
Petraitis was steady and had nine points and six rebounds in the second half, and he proved smart down the stretch.
NC State’s offense came down to how many drives Marcus Hill could create and finish. The Hill part of the offense was clicking with 20 points on 8 of 14 shooting and he added eight rebounds.
The problem was no other NC State player had more than nine points, which Taylor and freshman point guard Treymane Parker both had.
Wilkinson scored California’s first eight points and finished with 13 points. He had been on a scoring binge the last four games, with leading scorer Andrej Stojakovic returning to action after missing the last four games.
NC State also played without backup center Brandon Huntley-Hatfield, who missed his second straight game and didn't make the trip.
NC State returns to action at 7 p.m. Saturday at Stanford.
