NC State sophomore guard Braxton Beverly did something that Clemson couldn’t Saturday.
Beverly bombed from way beyond the three-point arc, with the shot looking pure as soon as it left his hand, hitting nothing but net at the buzzer to give NC State an improbable 69-67 win at PNC Arena.
Beverly’s three-pointer was the ninth of the game for the Wolfpack — and just Beverly’s first — but nine more than Clemson made against the Wolfpack defense. The Tigers went 0 of 7 from beyond the arc, but a closer shot with no defense being played ended up costing them dearly.
Clemson fifth-year senior shooting guard Marcquise Reed entered the game as the all-time leading free-throw shooter for the Tigers at 86.1 percent. Reed was fouled with 13.8 seconds left and promptly missed two free throws, and then was fouled again with 9.3 seconds remaining, and again missed both free throws.
In-between those missed free throws, Clemson elected to quickly foul Beverly, banking on the concept the Tigers would win a battle of free-throw shooting in the final 10 seconds. Beverly made his two to cut the CU lead to 67-66, setting up the last second heroics.
NC State improved to 16-4 overall and 4-3 in the ACC, setting up a showdown against No. 3-ranked Virginia at 7 p.m. Tuesday on ESPN2. Beverly’s three-pointer saved a lot of angst or hang-wringing in Raleigh over the next few days.
“I feel like we all did,” said Beverly on avoiding the despair of a tough loss. “With a minute left, we had that timeout, we told each to just stay solid. We were still right in the game. We always believed we could win the game.”
NC State tends to perform best in a free-flowing style rather than something setup, and the final play was no different. Beverly didn’t know if he’d even touch the ball in the final seconds, but when redshirt junior C.J. Bryce got bottled up, he found his teammate.
“It was just something that worked out between us players,” Beverly said. “As soon as it left my hand, I knew I had made it. You see the bench mob me after the game. It was great to get that support from your teammates.”
Beverly has always dreamed of such a dramatic moment.
“I was probably like two or three, and most of them [went in],” Beverly said. “I had a nerf goal hanging on the door.”
Keatts pointed to NC State’s full-court pressure defense for keeping his team in the game, and perhaps leading the Tigers to struggle at the line at the end. Clemson’s Gabe DeVoe missed the third of three free throws with 0.2 seconds left last year in the Tigers’ 78-77 loss to NCSU at PNC Arena.
“My teams always play until the clocks says zero,” Keatts said. “Believe it or not, I never feel like we are out of a game. I thought because we could press and make shots, we would have every opportunity to win the game.”
Clemson duo tested NCSU's defense
Clemson only had two players in double figures, with Reed finishing with 19 points and senior center Elijah Thomas added 18 points. The Tigers’ offense essentially came down to the two players waiting for favorable matchups and going to work.
Reed often attacked Beverly, and while Keatts didn’t want to praise his guard’s defense, and even sometimes subbed him out of the game, the 6-footer hung tough defensively. Reed only went 5 of 17 from the field, getting to the line often (9 of 14).
“Braxton’s defense against Reed was absolutely horrendous,” said Keatts, perhaps tongue in cheek. “They did a great job of switching screens to get Braxton on Reed. It wasn’t that he didn’t defend him well, but he was able to shoot over him.”
Beverly knew he was getting targeted on the defensive end, but he still managed to get the last laugh.
“Of course it felt good,” said Beverly, who finished with 12 points, five assists and just one turnover. “It just felt good to get the win.”
Thomas ended up having redshirt sophomore center DJ Funderburk foul out, and redshirt junior center Wyatt Walker, who returned to the starting lineup, mustered a scoreless game. The center position combined for four points, three rebounds and eight fouls against Thomas and the Tigers.
“When you talk about Reed and Thomas, they are as good as advertised and very good basketball players,” Keatts said. “They put a lot of pressure on our defense. They scored when they wanted to.”
Short turn-around affected Wolfpack
In perhaps explaining NC State’s sluggish performance Saturday, part of it was Clemson’s slower pace and another part was a quick turnaround. NC State managed just 30 points in the first half, which was the second lowest effort of the season, trailing a 27-point effort in the stunning loss at Wake Forest.
Keatts admitted playing at Louisville with a 8 p.m. tip Thursday, getting back home sometime before 2 a.m., and then play at 2 p.m. Saturday was a rough turnaround. The Wolfpack passed on a Saturday morning shoot-around.
“We were fortunate to be back home,” Keatts said. “This is the toughest league in college basketball, and we’ve played three games away from PNC. Four out of our six have been away from home.
“This was a tough, tough scout game for us. We watched film last night. We watched film yesterday. I had to make a decision, and it was a tough decision, on whether to do a shoot-around this morning.”
Beverly said the players also felt that tight turnaround.
“We were tired and we knew it would be tough to get up on such a quick turnaround,” Beverly said. “We battled through. We have a lot of tough guys on this team.”
NC State also welcomed the return of junior point guard Markell Johnson, who came off the bench for 16 points and two assists in 23 minutes. Rehabbing his hip/back injury, which caused him the miss the previous three games, on Friday and Saturday morning proved to be the difference in his return to the court.
When Clemson took a 55-51 lead with 4:29 left, Johnson came alive with a pair of three-pointers and then he made a three-point play, with the latter cutting the lead to 67-64 with 19 seconds left. That helped open the door for Beverly’s heroics.
“I feel like I’ll get better every game,” Johnson said. “It will keep us on a high. We aren’t going into Virginia with a loss or anything like that.”
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