Many times, it's difficult to pinpoint just one area that cost a team a game. Tuesday night was not one of them.

NC State (8-8, 4-7 ACC) committed a season-high 20 turnovers en route to a 77-68 home loss to Syracuse (11-6, 5-5 ACC).

Despite committing 13 first-half turnovers, the Wolfpack trailed by just one point at halftime after shooting 52.4 percent from the field in the opening 20 minutes. The shots stopped falling at the same high clip in the second half, and the Pack’s mistakes kept coming.

“The game, I think, speaks for itself,” NC State head coach Kevin Keatts said. “We turned the ball over 20 times, which is really not characteristic of us. I know we've had a few issues this year turning the ball over, but it wasn't a good night in that area.”

The Wolfpack’s 20 turnovers tied for the third-most in a single game under Keatts and the most since the beginning of the 2019-20 campaign.

One primary aspect of NC State’s identity under Keatts is winning the turnover margin and converting defensive takeaways into points on the other end. Syracuse was able to flip the script and do what the Pack intended to Tuesday night.

The Orange committed just 12 turnovers and outscored State 21-16 in points off of takeaways.

NC State’s lack of ball security was widespread. Of the Wolfpack’s seven players that played 12 minutes or more, each of them committed at least two turnovers.

“Turnovers are bad by themselves, but the issue with it was we turned it over for touchdowns,” Keatts said. “They were able to score and not have to play against a set defense. I thought our effort was there, our guys are playing hard. It's one of those games that it's going to be hard to beat a good team, I don't care where you play them, with that many turnovers.

“Just wasn't good enough, we got to get better in that area, we got to value the basketball. I wish I could point to one or two guys and say, 'Man, you got to get better with ball security.' But when you look at it, you see 4, 4, 3, 2, 2, 3, 2… just not good enough for our team. We got to get better in that area.”

NC State’s frontcourt made up a majority of the Pack’s offensive mistakes. Redshirt sophomore center Manny Bates, junior forward Jericole Hellems and fifth-year senior forward DJ Funderburk combined for 11 turnovers.

In the Wolfpack’s three-point loss to the Orange in the Carrier Dome, Hellems and Bates combined for 41 points and just five turnovers in the absence of Funderburk, who was unavailable in the first meeting due to “university policies.” The frontcourt trio combined for just 33 points with over double the mistakes.

“The zone puts you in spots where you got to be able to make plays from the short corner in the middle,” Keatts said. “Your bigs become your point guards because of what they give you if you can get it to the middle, if you can get it to the show corner. This is where we miss having a bigger guard. When you look out there, their size is a problem because we got two guys right around 6-foot at the guard spots right now, and that's a tough deal.”

One bright spot for the Wolfpack in the loss was the performance of redshirt junior guard Thomas Allen.

Allen led the team with 17 points, marking a season-high for the Nebraska transfer.

The 6-1, 180-footer is known as a perimeter shooting threat for the Pack but has struggled from beyond the arc recently.

In the five games entering Tuesday night, Allen went a combined 2-of-19 (10.5 percent) from three. In the home loss to Syracuse, Allen went 4-of-8 from beyond the arc, making all four of his field goals from long range.

“He played well, and he needed it,” Keatts said. “He needed to see the ball go in the hole. It was good for him. He's been struggling, he would say that. But he hasn't been able to see the ball go in the hole, and it happened for him tonight.”

Allen also added three rebounds, two assists and one steal in 35 minutes. Tuesday marked Allen’s sixth consecutive start and his 14th this season.

When Allen is on, the Pack hasn’t seemed to follow his lead. In the three games he’s scored in double figures this year, NC State has lost each contest: Miami (64-59), at Florida State (105-73) and Syracuse (77-68).

“I told the team I want to get a night where Thomas is playing well, Braxton is playing well and all of our bigs are playing well,” Keatts said. “We just haven't been consistent enough. We're starting to get one guard playing well each game, and when I say playing well, I mean being able to shoot the basketball.”

While turnovers held NC State back in the first half, the Pack’s inability to rebound the basketball, particularly in the second half, proved to be just as costly as its numerous offensive mistakes throughout the game.

Syracuse outrebounded the Wolfpack 32-28 overall and 14-8 on the offensive glass. The Orange were able to make that difference count, particularly on the offensive end. Syracuse outscored the Pack 21-16 on second-chance opportunities.

“One thing that really beat us tonight was we gave up 14 offensive rebounds,” Keatts said. “Typically when you pick up a stat sheet, we have more shot attempts than the other teams because we force guys into turnovers and because of our ability to get offensive rebounds. They got 15 more shots than we did. They got 60, and we got 45 because of the turnovers, and also because of the offensive rebounds.”

NC State, who has struggled on the glass consistently all season, seemed to have found a rebounding rhythm entering Tuesday’s contest. The Pack outrebounded each of its last three opponents, including the first meeting with Syracuse in the Carrier Dome (37-35).

The Wolfpack continued that momentum in the first half when it outrebounded Syracuse 16-10.

But the Orange won the battle of the boards when it counted most, outrebounding State 22-12 in the final 20 minutes of the game. 10 of Cuse’s 14 offensive rebounds and 12 of its 21 second-chance points came in the second half.

“They simply beat us to basketballs,” Keatts said. “I can't sit up here and say all the reasons why, they just went and got it. They beat us to the basketball. There was one time we gave up three offensive rebounds, and I had my biggest lineup in the game. We had Jericole at the three, DJ at the four and Manny at the five. During that segment, we gave up three offensive rebounds.

“We've emphasized rebounding, and we've done a good job in the last few games rebounding. They beat us to the basketball in the second half, and that's something that we've got to address.”

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