NC State finding rhythm through trust
NC State was well versed that Georgia Tech had split the series with Duke, and won at home against North Carolina last Tuesday.
The Wolfpack had some ebbs and flows, but when it came to winning team, put the foot down and won 82-76 to improve to 15-7 overall and 7-4 in the ACC.
NC State senior guard D.J. Horne had 26 points and four three-pointers, and junior wing Jayden Taylor brought the energy en route to 21 points and seven boards. Taylor and Horne had never scored 20-plus points in the game this season. Additionally, senior wing Casey Morsell chipped in 15 points and the trio had 62 of the 82 points scored.
“It just comes to focusing on the details, the little things,” Morsell said. “Closing and finishing possessions is the biggest thing. Our stretch of [three] losses, we had a tough time rebounding and finishing possessions and the game. That was pretty much it.”
NC State’s three wings took turns carrying the load, and had some fun doing it. Two of the most memorable plays were when junior wing Jayden Taylor missed, but got the offensive rebound while laying on the ground, and he kicked it out to senior point guard Michael O’Connell, who made the three-pointer to give the Wolfpack a 13-7 lead.
“That was fun and funny,” said Taylor about his assist from the ground. “I had never done that before.”
Another fun play was when Morsell showed off his right arm and threw a dart to a streaking Taylor for an open court dunk, which gave NC State a 62-48 lead with 8:54 left. That capped a dominant stretch where the Wolfpack went on a 24-4 run to open the game up. Fittingly, Morsell, Horne and Taylor all scored six points apiece during the big run.
Morsell said he never threw the ball in football, but did play some shortstop in the past.
“I had that in me,” Morsell said. “There was also a nice one [to Mohamed Diarra toward the end]. Honestly, I was just trying to throw it ahead. They were fast and I was trying to get them a good head start and try to aim with it.
“I think I have pretty good arm strength. I played shortstop, and maybe that is where it comes from.”
NC State coach Kevin Keatts was able to win his 200th game of his coaching career between his time at North Carolina-Wilmington and NCSU.
“We are better when we move that basketball,” Keatts said. “You look at Miami and we had 17 assists and nine turnovers. Tonight we had 14 and four. When we play off each other with ball movement, we are trying to run a couple of ghost screens to get guys open and driving lanes.
“This is a team when we share the basketball, we are a good basketball team. We don’t have a lot of guys who can just go get a basket by themselves.”
Georgia Tech didn’t give up, but the closest the Yellow Jackets got with enough time on the clock, was cutting it to 71-65 on a Naithan George three-pointer. The freshman point guard had 18 points for the Yellow Jackets. NCSU showed its poise and Horne hit four straight free throws to clinch things.
NC State did a credible defensive job on Georgia Tech’s top three scorers, especially in the first half. Junior wing Miles Kelly didn’t get his second basket until there was 3:02 left in the game, and then played well from there, with 11 of his team-high 20 points coming in the second half.
Baye Ndongo was coming off an injury against North Carolina that ended his night after five minutes played, and he had two points in the first half. Ndongo finished with five points and seven rebounds before fouling out.
Florida transfer Kowacie Reeves went scoreless in six minutes played in the first half, and ended with 12 points.
To Georgia Tech’s credit, the Yellow Jackets made four three-pointers in the final 3:29 in scrambling to come back, and that skewed the statistics. GT shot 41.4 percent from the field and were 11 of 27 from beyond the arc.
NC State with its four-guard alignment still outscored Georgia Tech 32-22 in points in the paint.
Keatts said he wanted Georgia Tech to take a large number of three-pointers and he felt good about how the players knew the defensive game plan.
“They pocket feed better than anybody,” said Keatts on the NBA style of GT coach Damon Stoudamire. “Their bigs roll and they make that pocket pass. We wanted to take that away. Ndongo has been hurting everybody he’s played, so we had a mixed bag of it [defenses].”
NC State didn’t shoot particularly well, but got good looks and kept the defense honest with nine made three-pointers (in 31 attempts). It also helped that NC State only had four turnovers, and scored 18 points off Georgia Tech’s 12 turnovers.
The style points might come later, but the last two games have shown that NC State is fine playing a halfcourt, defensive battle kind of style. Miami mustered 68 points last Tuesday, and Georgia Tech needed the late three-pointers to reach the 70s.
“I think we have figured it out,” Taylor said. “We just have to play together as a team and defend, and then good things happen. We hang our head on our defense and we want to score off our defense.”
NCSU returns to action against Pittsburgh at 7 p.m. Wednesday at PNC Arena. The Panthers defeated Notre Dame on Saturday to improve to 14-8 overall and 5-6 in the ACC.
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