NC State had a perfect storm of various factors that led to Louisville blowing them out 91-66 on Wednesday at the Lenovo Center.
Louisville shot an impressive 11 of 19 from three-point land against a Wolfpack defense that didn’t have the same intensity of past games. The combination of returning from a West Coast swing at California and Stanford last week, and the difficulty of engineering the energy following eight straight losses took a toll on the Wolfpack.
NC State fell to 9-15 overall and 2-11 in the ACC, and its losing streak extended to nine-straight games. The Wolfpack will try to regroup on Saturday with a home contest against Boston College.
“Normally I would come in here and I would talk about how our defense has really kept us in a lot of games,” NCSU coach Kevin Keatts said. “I didn't think we were very good tonight, like defensively. We didn't do a good job understanding scouting reports.
“We have been in every game because our defense has really kept us in games and tonight was a one-off and I hope it's a one-off.”
The cherry on top was that Louisville is also a terrific team and a veteran one at that. The Cardinals used the transfer portal last spring to create a brand new roster for first-year coach Pat Kelsey. The former Winthrop and College of Charleston coach has the Cardinals 19-6 overall and 12-2 in the ACC.
ACC teams are 1-6 after playing at California and Stanford on the first game back from the road trip. Wake Forest also lost Wednesday in a collapse at home against Florida State. Keatts couldn’t pin-point one aspect, but the Wolfpack got down 18-5 from the start of the game.
“Maybe it's the travel, maybe it's giving Louisville credit,” Keatts said.
NC State’s script all season in nearly every loss has been to play hard defense and have a chance down the stretch. The formula got blown up early, and about the only hope to be competitive came on a 7-0 run to cut the UL lead to 36-27 with 1:13 left in the first half.
Louisville even handled that little big of adversity well by ending the half on a 5-0 run, and then starting the second half on a 16-6 outburst to build a 57-33 lead with 13:23 left in the game. It was curtains for the Wolfpack from there.
The Cardinals shot 63.6 percent for the game and shot a blistering 11 of 19 from three-point line to run away with the game. Senior Terrence Edwards and Reyna Smith combined to shoot 9 of 13 on three-pointers to score 21 points apiece.
Senior forward J’Vonne Hadley added 17 points and nine rebounds, and senior point guard Chucky Hepburn returned from a one-game injury absence to run the show with 15 points and six assists.
“We knew Louisville is obviously a great shooting team, not a good shooting team, and obviously gave up 11 threes and they were 11 for 19,” Keatts said. “We just had too many breakdowns defensively.”
With the game out of hand, NC State turned to freshmen Paul McNeil and Treymane Parker, and they combined for 25 points. Senior guard Breon Pass provided shooting and energy off the bench with 12 points.
“I would say we're very inconsistent in our play,” Keatts said. “You know, that being said, I thought our young guys were really good. I thought if you want one bright spot about it, I thought Trey Parker's getting better. I thought Paul made some shots.”
The Wolfpack also welcomed back senior center Brandon Huntley-Hatfield from injury, and he had four points and 10 rebounds against his former school.
NC State also had a listed 10,029, which was less than normal this season. The Clemson game drew 15,299, which was the last home game. Keatts appreciated the fans that did come in rainy, cold conditions, and understands the results weren’t there.
“If you think, as a fan, if you're disappointed, how do you think the guys who work extremely hard every day?” Keatts said. “We're busting our butt every day. Let's not forget one thing now. We did hang a banner — two of them — that hadn't happened in 37 and 40 years.
“Let's have some respect for that part of it. Understand that we might not be having a great season, but we've done some pretty good things here. I think that's enough for people to understand that anything is possible.”
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