Notebook: NC State goes cold in second half, loses to Clemson in overtime

With 4:34 remaining in the second half, NC State had a six-point lead in its first conference road game of the season in Littlejohn Coliseum.

The Wolfpack (6-2, 2-1 ACC) led No. 19 Clemson (9-1, 3-1 ACC) for almost 35 minutes of regulation, but cold shooting and a handful of fatal turnovers down the stretch cost the Pack the opportunity to advance to 3-0 in ACC play for the first time in eight years.

The Tigers finished the final four minutes of the second half on a 9-3 run and had an opportunity to win the game with the final possession before a block by freshman guard Shakeel Moore forced overtime. Clemson went on to outscore the Pack 12-8 in overtime and won 74-70.

Head coach Kevin Keatts, who dropped to 0-3 in Littlejohn Coliseum, saw more reason for positivity than anything Tuesday night but admitted the need for improvement in closing out games.

“Too many mistakes towards the end of the game,” Keatts said. “We didn't win the game simply because we made mistakes down the stretch. Too many turnovers, too many defensive breakdowns, too many young guys making mistakes, and our older guys did too, so I'm not pinpointing anybody.

“If it's one of those games that we're going to lose, we have to get better from that, we've got to learn from that. Every game that we play in the ACC is going to be a possession game. I thought we did a tremendous job finishing the Carolina game. Same thing with Boston College. Tonight I thought we fell apart at the end because we had too many guys making mistakes. I needed our veteran guys to step up and take control of the game, and, obviously, they were a part of it also.”

For the second straight game, NC State lost the turnover margin. The Pack turned the ball over 14 times and only produced nine takeaways. Nine of those 14 came in the second half and overtime.

Entering the contest, the Wolfpack led the NCAA in turnover margin. Considering the defensive identity of this team, Keatts reiterated the importance of forcing takeaways but emphasized the need to also have fewer on the offensive end.

“We got to take care of the basketball,” Keatts said. “Most of our turnovers probably came late in the second half, where I thought guys got really careless with the basketball. We've got to do a good job in that situation. We only had eight assists, and Clemson's a team that if you drive, they sell out to protect the paint. Sometimes we didn't make the extra passes.”

Turnovers weren’t the only reason NC State lost its lead Tuesday. The shots stopped dropping late in the game. The Pack went without a field goal in the final 7:39 of regulation and only made two in the final 11 minutes.

The Wolfpack was able to get to the line consistently during that stretch but, with the exception of fifth-year senior forward DJ Funderburk, even the free throws weren’t going in.

Funderburk went 9-of-9 on free throw attempts, eight of which came in the final 10 minutes of the second half. The rest of the team, however, made just 3-of-6 attempts in the second half.

“I don't think it was anything Clemson was doing, we just didn't make shots,” Keatts said. “I thought we got some looks, we didn't make shots.

"By the way, Clemson's a good defensive team. I thought in the first half, the pace was completely in our favor. We were able to score 39 points in the first half. We had Clemson playing a little faster than they like to play, but at the end of the day, give their defense some credit. We missed some shots, but a lot of that is because they're a good defensive team.”

One small win Tuesday night was the fact that NC State outrebounded Clemson 40-37, which marked the third time this season that the Pack grabbed more boards than its opponent.

Seven of those rebounds came on the offensive end, which helped the Wolfpack outscore the Tigers 9-7 on second-chance points.

Moore and fifth-year senior guard Devon Daniels each led the team with 10 rebounds, combining for half of the team’s production off the glass.

After winning the battle of the boards for the second straight game, Daniels said the backcourt “definitely” has to be active on the glass to make NC State a consistently competitive rebounding team in the ACC.

“It's going to have to be a team effort,” Daniels said. “Coach said it earlier, we just don't have that one big guy who's grabbing 10 boards a game at this moment. Manny [Bates] and DJ, I feel like they can definitely do that because they're tough, physical guys. To start winning this rebound war, we're going to have to do that as a whole group.

"It's not just going to be one person stepping up, it's going to have to be all of us. Taking it on the chin, learn from it and start getting tougher down there.”

All 10 of Daniels’ rebounds came on defense, giving him a team-high on the defensive glass. Funderburk led the Pack with four offensive rebounds and accounted for a majority of the nine second-chance points on putbacks.

Entering Tuesday night, Clemson senior forward and preseason first-team All-ACC honoree Aamir Simms was a guy that was specifically circled on the Wolfpack’s scouting report.

“He's one of those guys that does a little bit of everything for their team,” Keatts said in his pregame availability Monday. “Certainly, in order for us to have a successful game, we've got to slow him down. You're never going to stop or contain a guy like that, you just don't want him to have a great night.”

Indeed, the Pack was able to prevent a great night for Simms, who led the team in scoring (13.1 ppg) and rebounding (5.7 rpg) entering the contest.

Clemson’s pick-and-pop big man was scoreless in the first 30 minutes of the game and made just one field goal in regulation. He was also in foul trouble, picking up his fourth foul with 6:52 left in the second half.

Simms was able to avoid what would have been his fifth and fatal foul down the stretch and finished the night with eight points, seven rebounds, four assists and two steals. Four of his points came in overtime on back-to-back possessions, which flipped a one-point NC State lead into a three-point Tigers lead with 1:35 remaining.

“He's got great composure,” Funderburk said. “He's real selfless. He tried to get his teammates open more to score from my point of view. That was just one of the main focal points throughout the couple practices that we had before the game, and we just tried to come in and lock him down.

“He had a very loud eight points at the end of the game. He just did what he needed to do to get his team to win, you can't do nothing but respect that.”

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