CHARLOTTE — NC State appeared prime to pull off the upset against Virginia at the ACC Tournament on Thursday, but the one-two punch of junior shooting guard Kyle Guy and fifth-year senior center Jack Salt proved too difficult to slow down.
Guy wasn’t overly surprising that he went off for seven three-pointers and 29 points, but Salt adding 18 points certainly was in helping Virginia win 76-56. Virginia improved to 29-2 overall and NC State will have a few nervous days after finishing 22-11.
The players who were making key plays were different, but NC State still was in a perfect position to upset Virginia for the second time this season. NC State’s near-upset in the first meeting resulted in a 66-65 overtime loss Jan. 29 in Raleigh. The Guy-Salt duo combined for 15 points that game.
Virginia surged to an early 16-6 lead with 13:29 left in the first half, thanks to the early hot play of junior shooting guard Kyle Guy, who had 11 points and an assist during that stretch. Guy was bottled up pretty good — scoring 10 points on 3 of 11 shooting — against the Wolfpack in the first meeting.
Once Guy cooled off, so did the Cavaliers, who were 5 of 17 from the field when taking out Guy’s numbers. NC State used the effective play of redshirt sophomore center DJ Funderburk to methodically climb back into the game.
Funderburk scored 10 points in helping the Wolfpack lead 22-18 with 8:57 left in the first half. Funderburk was a non-factor Jan. 29, scoring just two points in 14 minutes.
Virginia appeared ripe for an upset with NCSU leading 29-27 at halftime. The difference in the second meeting is that Virginia rode the hot hand of Guy, who finished with seven three-pointers and 29 points, but the unexpected bonus offense from Salt.
“The shots he [Guy] made were back-breakers,” Keatts said. “He played extremely well. I thought everybody kind of fed off of him, and he just made shots.”
Salt entered the ACC Tournament with zero points over his last five games, and one field goal over his last six. The center from New Zealand had only cracked double figures four times in his UVA career. Salt got the offensive rebound and made the reverse layup, and then Virginia turned a NCSU turnover with Guy hitting the three-pointer and getting fouled on the play by Braxton Beverly. Guy made the ensuing free throw and Virginia led 41-36.
“[Guy’s shooting] opened up a ton, and when Kyle is hot, he can hit tough shots,” Beverly said. “Kyle is at the top of the scouting report for scoring for them and Jack Salt is not for example.”
The sequence seemed to energize Virginia after a flat first half.
“Jack was really good and I thought we did a really good job on him in the first half (three points),” Keatts said. “He did a great job. He’s so back and Jack screens and rolls and rolled to the hole, and our guys did a poor job.”
NC State then lost Funderburk a little after that sequence, when he got poked in the eye by Virginia redshirt junior post player Mamadi Diakite with 12:41 left in the game and the Cavaliers leading 43-37. Funderburk returned to action with 10:13 left in the game, but UVA stretched the lead to 52-41 and the Wolfpack never recovered.
“We didn’t come out with the toughness that we did in the first half in the second half, and Kyle Guy made some big shots down the stretch,” said Funderburk, who knew the eye poke was unintentional. “We just couldn’t keep up.”
Keatts pointed out that Virginia was sped up a little in the first meeting, but not in Charlotte.
“At our place in the second half, we were able to speed them up,” Keatts said. “They took some shots that were a little questionable for Tony’s system. Tonight, they didn’t. They stayed the court. They ran their stuff and obviously they came away with a good win.”
Finding consistency
Getting half-to-half consistency has been for NC State against ACC competition and the ACC Tournament proved it.
The Wolfpack struggled against Clemson on Wednesday and trailed 42-26 at halftime. A big second half led by junior point guard Markell Johnson helped spark the win against the Tigers.
NCSU played well enough to lead 29-27 against Virginia in the first half, but then fell apart after halftime, and the Cavaliers won the second half 49-27 to win the game. If NC State makes the NCAA Tournament, getting a complete 40-minute game will be the challenge for NC State.
“When you look at the Clemson game, I didn’t think we played well in the first half, and then you take this game, we didn’t play well in the second half, and so what I’m asking these guys is our mentality has to be to put back-to-back halves,” Keatts said. “That doesn’t necessarily mean it has to be 40 minutes, but we’ve got to be able to play 30-to-35 minutes of good basketball.”
Junior point guard Markell Johnson has had some big second half’s this season, including going for 13 of his 23 points after halftime against Clemson on Wednesday. Johnson scored a team-high 13 points against Virginia, but only had one assist and there was no second-half outburst.
Johnson didn’t blame playing two games in two days.
“We conditioned ourselves in practice to go full go every day,” Johnson said.
Beverly just credited Virginia’s ability to go on a devastating run as they did. The Wolfpack led 36-35 with 15:19 left in the game, but the Cavaliers responded by going on a 22-5 run.
“They are a good team and when they get on a run like that, it’s hard to bounce back,” Beverly said. “It’s just something we didn’t do.”
Leaving points at free-throw line
NC State entered the game shooting 71.4 percent from the free-throw line, but it didn’t translate against Virginia. The Wolfpack went just 15 of 25 at the line for 60 percent, and even attempted three more free throws than UVA.
NCSU has shot less than 70 percent at the free-throw line in 12 games this season, and Thursday’s performance was the fourth-lowest of the season at 60 percent. Fifth-year senior forward Torin Dorn and redshirt sophomore wing Devon Daniels both shot 1 of 4 at the line. The Wolfpack also had a lane violation on the front end of a one-and-one.
“I didn’t think we made our free throws,” Keatts said. “When you look at it, it was a pivotal stretch that I thought we missed five free throws in a row where the score was about 11 — should have been a six-point game.”
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