NC State had No. 3-ranked Kansas on the ropes Wednesday, but couldn’t finish off the Jayhawks in the Battle 4 Atlantis in the Bahamas.
Kansas pulled out a 80-74 win over NC State with freshman sharp shooter Gradey Dick getting 25 points and six three-pointers, and junior forward Jalen Wilson grinded his way to 19 points and 11 rebounds.
The hot shooting of NC State redshirt junior wing Casey Morsell led the Wolfpack with 21 points, eight rebounds and he went 5 of 8 on three-pointers.
The Wolfpack were within one possession, 71-68, with 3:42 left in the game. Kansas went on a little 6-0 spurt to get some breathing room and there wasn’t drama in the final minutes. The Jayhawks held NC State four free throws over a 4:20 stretch, broken up by Morsell hitting a three-pointer with three seconds left in the game.
“I believe in my shot and I just need to keep shooting,” Morsell said.
Keatts was impressed with former Rivals.com five-star prospect Dick, who took advantage of his 6-foot-8 size in shooting over defenders.
“I thought they made plays down the stretch when they had to have it,” NC State coach Kevin Keatts said. “I am proud of the guys for hard they played, but unfortunate we came up a little short on winning the game.
“I do think they are a top five team in the country, and we were right there.”
The Jayhawks improved to 5-0 overall, and play the winner of Wisconsin and Dayton on Thursday, and the Wolfpack fell to 4-1 and will play the loser of the Flyers and Badgers at 4 p.m. Thursday on ESPN News.
“We have to shake it off and in 24 hours, play another good team,” Keatts said.
Both teams played pretty evenly statistically with NC State holding a 6-point advantage in fast-break points, and the Jayhawks had 10 more points in the paint. The Jayhawks had 14 assists on 24 baskets and the Wolfpack had eight assists on 24 field goals.
Kansas took a 58-49 lead with 11:14 left in the game, but NC State kept battling back time and time again, which Keatts found encouraging. Morsell, Smith and Joiner combined for 57 of the Wolfpack’s 74 points.
“I thought our guard play between the one, two and three, was exceptional,” Keatts said. “We are going to build from this.”
Kansas coach Bill Self was full of praise of the NC State guards, particularly the quickness of senior Jarkel Joiner and sophomore Terquavion Smith. The streaky Smith couldn’t find the range on his three-pointers, going 2 of 7 beyond the arc, and he had four turnovers before fouling out.
“Kevin has a good team,” Self said. “Joiner is good and he’s a legitimate lead guard anywhere in the country. Smith is obviously a legitimate scoring guard anywhere in the country. Morsell is good. That speed is what concerned me the most.
“I told the players that is the quickest team we play all year long on the perimeter.”
Kansas went small down the stretch with former Creedmoor (N.C.) South Granville point guard Bobby Pettiford playing with Dajuan Harris in the backcourt and Wilson played center. Undersized center K.J. Adams had fouled out for KU.
“I was going to go small regardless because it was the best team,” Self said. “They probably had to make threes to have a chance, so we switched five and didn’t go under ball screens.”
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