NC State has dominant second half to cruise past Virginia
Sometimes a shot can go in that ends up describing if the vibes of a game will go a certain way.
NC State freshman Dennis Parker of Richmond, Va., had one of those kinds of shots, when his heave from the Tuffy logo inside halfcourt beat the shot-clock buzzer and went in. Virginia coach Tony Bennett said his team felt the affects from it, and NC State coach Kevin Keatts joked it was exactly what they had drawn up.
Regardless, Parker’s bomb sparked him and the Wolfpack the rest of the game after a relatively slow start. Parker finished tied for team-high scoring honors with 15 points and he went 3 of 5 from three-point range in a convincing 76-60 victory over Virginian in front of 14,821 at PNC Arena.
NC State improved to 11-3 overall and 3-0 in the ACC, with North Carolina coming to PNC Arena on Wednesday. Virginia fell to 11-4 overall and 2-2 in the league.
“We’ve played 14 games and he [Parker] is just growing up,” Keatts said. “He is understanding what I am looking for. He did everything great except for a long three he took from the wing.
“That [Parker shot] was one of my best play calls of the year, getting Dennis Parker the ball near halfcourt with 1.4 seconds on the clock. I knew he would just drain that.”
Bennett pin-pointed the Parker three-pointer as perhaps the beginning of the end, even it just meant three points. He said his inexperienced team has to learn to not let the lows sink them into even more difficult scenarios, especially on the road.
“NC State, their one, two, three’s defensively really get after you defensively and make it hard,” Bennett said. “They are a dangerous team for sure with the inside-outside attack.
“He’s a dynamic young player. That was certainly a momentum swing. I thought our guys had a little bit of the right mind-set. You can’t be too fast or too slow on offense. You felt that swing.”
Parker helped jump-start the second half with six straight points and nine of the first 14 points to help build a commanding 49-32 lead with 14:50 left. Virginia never got closer than 13 points the rest of the game.
NC State was able to play in front of a packed PNC Arena for the first time this season, and Keatts made some other subtle moves. He essentially paired his rotation down to eight players, with junior post player Mohamed Diarra getting three first-half minutes as the ninth player.
“One of the things we wanted to do after Christmas was help develop our bench,” Keatts said. “It’s tough because [junior guard] Kam Woods didn’t play tonight and he’s a good player. I’m asking guys to buy into roles and play and take advantage of every minute you get when you are in the game.”
Keatts wasn’t sure if that rotation would stick, but the chemistry was smoother with junior center Ben Middlebrooks and senior point guard Michael O’Connell anchoring the second unit. Middlebrooks went to work inside with eight points and seven rebounds in 18 minutes, and O’Connell had six points, five assists and three rebounds in 27 minutes.
Keatts half-joked that senior guard D.J. Horne particularly likes it when O’Connell is playing heavy minutes because he can slide off the ball and do what he does best — score the basketball. Horne finished with 14 points.
“We made the extra pass and that is what helped us,” Keatts said. “He [O’Connell] is the closest thing I’ve had in a long time to a pure point guard.”
Burns had six points and four assists, and helped the Wolfpack figure out UVA’s double team defense, which wasn’t the case in last year’s meeting, when Burns had eight points and six turnovers in a 63-50 loss.
“We really worked on it,” Keatts said. “We had a little cheat sheet because Notre Dame doubled us the same way and we were able to find people.”
Bennett also praised the defensive job of NC State junior guard Jayden Taylor, who hounded senior point guard Reece Beekman. The Cavaliers only have one ballhandler in Beekman, so he had to do some heavy lifting to achieve 12 points and 10 assists.
The Cavaliers shot 5 of 15 from three-point land and 43.4 percent overall from the field. UVA sophomore wing Isaac McKneeley had a game-high 18 points and sophomore power forward Ryan Dunn added 16 points and seven boards.
“I thought we completely won the game on the defensive end,” Keatts said. “Our guys were locked in. We talked about being a better defensive team this particular night.”
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