Braxton Beverly matched a career high with 21 points and North Carolina State beat Syracuse 73-58 on Wednesday night.
Torin Dorn had 16 points and 12 rebounds, and DJ Funderburk added 12 points to help the Wolfpack (18-7, 6-6 Atlantic Coast Conference) win their second straight.
Frank Howard led the cold-shooting Orange (17-8, 8-4) with a season-best 21 points and Marek Dolezaj added 10. Syracuse shot just 35 percent overall while NC State was at 64 percent in the second half, pushing its lead into double figures to stay with a 14-0 run midway through the half keyed by Beverly.
In his last home game — a 47-24 loss to Virginia Tech on Feb. 2 that set all sorts of futility marks — Beverly was 0 for 12 and missed nine 3s. He then hit 9 of 14 attempts from lone range in the two games preceding this one.
Then, squaring up against the Orange's trademark 2-3 zone defense, Beverly hit four of the Wolfpack's five 3-pointers while matching the high he set last month in a home loss to North Carolina.
BIG PICTURE
Syracuse: The Orange just couldn't hit anything, no matter where they shot it from. Syracuse was 5 of 25 from 3-point range and made just 11 of 22 free throws — only once all season has Syracuse been worse from the line, when they shot 39 percent in a loss to Buffalo. The Orange fell to 0-6 against power-conference opponents when its overall shooting percentage was in the 30s.
NC State: The Wolfpack had an uncharacteristically lonely bench, because one of the ACC's deepest groups of subs was down a couple of men after Eric Lockett (personal reasons) and Blake Harris (illness) were unavailable. NC State's bench combines to average 31.3 points and the three reserves coach Kevin Keatts used in this one came through with 21 points.
UP NEXT
Syracuse: Returns home to take on No. 16 Louisville on Feb. 20.
NC State: Makes the short trip across the Triangle to face No. 2 Duke on Saturday night.
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