NC State’s defense held Bethune-Cookman to 36.2 percent shooting, two made three-pointers and forced 15 turnovers in a 65-48 victory Thursday in front of 5,429 fans at historic Reynolds Coliseum.
Redshirt sophomore forward Dereon Seabron got his sixth double-double of the young season with 16 points and 14 boards to pace the Wolfpack. Bethune-Cookman fell to 1-8 on the season.
NC State coach Kevin Keatts used a previous game as motivation for Thursday. NC State handed Texas Southern its fifth loss Nov. 21. The Tigers eventually fell to 0-7 on the season, but upset Florida on Monday. Keatts didn’t want to have a similar fate against Bethune-Cookman.
“You are going to look at their record and going to say, ‘God, they aren’t very good,’” Keatts said. “What I did was look at the Seton Hall game where they were up at halftime. It was a battle all the way through.”
NC State (7-2 overall) returns to action to play an angry Purdue squad Sunday in Brooklyn, N.Y. Rutgers small forward Ron Harper Jr. hit a buzzer-beating three-point just inside halfcourt to shock the newly-ranked No. 1 Boilermakers 70-68 on Thursday in Piscataway, N.J. Rutgers even won without guard Geo Baker.
The game began in strong fashion with NC State racing out to a 9-0 lead. Then Bethune-Cookman did just enough to hang around in the first half. Wing Joe French had 12 of his 14 points in the first half, and NC State only led 34-29 at halftime. NCSU wasn’t expecting that kind of challenge, but the Wolfpack struggled when not on the break. NC State had 13 fastbreak points at halftime, but only 19 for the game.
Senior forward Jericole Hellems helped carry the team in the first half with nine of his 13 points. Freshman wing Terquavion Smith and sophomore forward Seabron got busy in the second half. Smith in his second start for injured Casey Morsell, had 14 points and three three-pointers.
The last time Smith played at Reynolds, it was winning a NCHSAA state title for Farmville (N.C.) Central.
“Terquavion is playing better as a freshman,” Keatts said. “I have to live with his mistakes until we get Casey back.”
NC State held a comfortable second-half lead, but the hope it would turn into a blowout never came to fruition. NCSU even had a scoring slump in the second half. Keatts pointed out that Reynolds Coliseum takes some time to adjust.
“It’s not really our home venue,” Keatts said. “I know people are like, ‘Man, what a great place and on campus.’ Before we played today, we practiced in here twice because there is so much going on.”
Sophomore center Ebenezer Dowuona got an offensive rebound and made the layup to stretch the lead to 55-42 with 8:34 left. Smith had the next field goal with 2:19 remaining to make it 60-46. Between NC State’s defense and some free throws, Bethune-Cookman never challenged.
“It was a good game for us, especially in the second half,” Keatts said. “I told them we’d play a scrappy team.
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