The NC State offense has gone through some scouring slumps, but nothing like it experienced Saturday against Virginia Tech.
Virginia Tech’s defense was strong in the second half, but the combination of good defense, loss of confidence and a rough start doomed NC State. The Hokies won 47-24 and held the Wolfpack to 9 of 54 from the field for 17 percent. NCSU shot just 2 of 28 on three-pointers and shooting got progressively worse as the game went on.
The difficult loss dropped the No. 23 Wolfpack to 16-6 overall and 4-5 in the ACC, and likely out of the top 25 polls Monday.
“I can’t say I’ve seen this before,” NCSU coach Kevin Keatts said. “It obviously didn’t go the way we wanted it to.
“I don’t know if I have ever been part of a game where none of our guys played well.”
Despite the shooting woes, Virginia Tech’s own offense kept NC State in the game at halftime, 20-14. A few breaks and some positive energy and NC State could have made a game out of it, but instead the problems got exacerbated with the Hokies defense turning up the heat. NCSU only made three field goals after halftime.
Keatts called it a snowball effect and wanted his team to relax and laugh some in the second half. The players never found an offensive groove.
“I thought it would get better in the second half, but it obviously didn’t,” Keatts said. “It’s one of those games where the ball didn’t go in. We didn’t play great.”
Redshirt junior center Wyatt Walker was as perplexed as anyone about the Wolfpack’s showing.
“I’m almost at a loss of words, and it was embarrassing,” Walker said. “It has to be the worst loss that I have ever been part of.
“I was thinking the whole team that we weren’t shooting well, but our defense is staying there and we’ll make shots eventually.”
Offense never finds a groove
NC State has had some rough starts in the past, but nothing like Saturday. NCSU freshman forward Jericole Hellems made the second field goal to cut the lead to 5-4 with 9:04 left in the first half. That kind of difficult beginning was reminiscent of when Boston College “jumped” out to a 6-1 lead before NCSU’s Torin Dorn getting the Wolfpack’s first field goal with 12:46 left in the first half. NC State went on to win 82-66 and erased the slow start.
“I didn’t think back to any game from last year, but what I told our guys at halftime, no matter what the score is, and it was 20-14 ... you’re obviously still in the game,” Keatts said. “We didn’t have it today for whatever reason. I thought in the second half, our defense struggled because of our offense.”
There was no momentum at all against Virginia Tech, who was playing without star senior point guard Justin Robinson.
Keatts felt his squad played hard but just didn’t shoot well, and would embrace holding any team to 47 points. He liked the looks the team got on offense, especially in the first half.
“We just missed shots,” Keatts said. “I thought our guys played extremely hard, but we missed shots.”
At some point the mental fatigue of missing shots over and over caught up to NC State.
"To score 10 points in the second half, I never thought it would happen with this team with the amount of talent in the locker room," NCSU redshirt junior wing C.J. Bryce said.
NC State expects up-tempo pace at UNC
NC State has played three straight slowdown games between Clemson, Virginia and Virginia Tech, and couldn’t reach 70 points against any of them. That likely won’t be the case at North Carolina on Tuesday at the Dean E. Smith Center. UNC won the first meeting 90-82 on Jan. 9 at PNC Arena, and an up-and-down game might be exactly what the Wolfpack need.
“You just have to move on and go into practice tomorrow and do the same thing you normally do,” Walker said. “You never want to be a part of a loss like that.”
Getting junior point guard Markell Johnson back on track after he took a nasty fall against Pittsburgh on Jan. 12 would go a long ways toward unlocking the NCSU offense. Johnson went 0 of 5 to finish with two points, three rebounds, two assists and four turnovers in 23 minutes played against the Hokies in his third game back from injury. He had previously scored a combined 30 points against the Tigers and Cavaliers.
“I think his timing is off, and he’s lost some of his conditioning,” Keatts said. “He isn’t playing well like we want him to.”
Keatts said he’d watch film of the Virginia Tech loss Saturday afternoon and then determine if he’d have the players review the film.
“We’ll get back in the gym and start working on our shots,” Keatts said. “You don’t have enough time because we have another game we need to prepare in a few days.”
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