NC State coach Kevin Keatts knew that many different aspects went wrong in the first half.
North Carolina led 54-26 at halftime and there wasn't any chance of a comeback from that stunning hole Wednesday. North Carolina won 97-73 and Keatts points out several areas that hurt the Wolfpack in his interview with the Wolfpack Radio Network.
What helped them jump out to an advantage early?
"Yeah, we got off to a terrible start. I thought, what really bothers me is that we got beat to a lot of 50-50 balls. We gave up second and third opportunities. We gave up seven of their threes in the first half.
"You look at the second half, we battled, we fought. On the road in the ACC, you can't dig a big hole and expect to come back to win the game. Then I thought the game started off, went back and forth. We turned the ball over too much in the first half. We gave up threes and we gave up transition.
"Once you dig yourself in a hole, our guys fought in the second half. We had such a huge deficit and a big mountain to climb."
Nine first half turnovers, one in the second half. Was that the stat juxtaposition that you're looking for?
"All of the stats are that way. When you look at the first half, we gave up seven threes. We only gave up one in the second half. We turned the ball over nine times and we won in the second half. We moved the ball in the second half and did a really good job. Once again, they came out and I thought we played hard. I just thought they'd beat us to 50-50 balls and then we got a little tight.
"Instead of coming together, we got a little bit divided. Once we got in the locker room, we settled down. We were in such a big hole and that's disappointing. We gotta figure it out that half, our half really cost us the game."
How did UNC end up plus-19 in rebounds? That's too high, right?
"Our guys who we count on rebounding the basketball, I mean, we didn't get much. Ben [Middlebrooks] had one rebound in 21 minutes. Dontrez [Styles], he was a bright spot. He had five. Brandon [Huntley-Hatfield] in 17 minutes, he had one. We just didn't rebound the basketball as we needed to.
"When you don't rebound the basketball and you don't do a good job of — our defense was not very good the first half. I thought it showed up in halftime. They scored 54 points and shooting 57 percent from the field, just not a good half for us at all."
Did UNC shoot really well from three-point land in the first half?
"Tough shots. The threes doesn't bother me as much as we gave them second and third opportunities to make it. If you ask me why I'm pissed off, I think we didn't play like we should have in the first half.
"We gave them too many second-chance shots. We got beat to 50-50 balls. We had some great looks and they just didn't go down. Then obviously, our defense didn't travel. We could be playing much better in the second half. I'm happy with the guys that showed up in the second half.
"We fought, we competed, we won the second half, but we didn't win the game because we lost it in the first half."
How happy were you to see freshman wing Paul McNeil play well?
"I'm happy with Paul. He stepped up and he played well and played with a lot of energy and did a really good job for us. He was one of the bright spots in the actual bright spot. I thought Jayden [Taylor] played well.
"I thought Trez, from an efficiency standpoint, 7-for-10 was really good. We didn't have much any interior scoring."
Follow on Twitter:
@NCStateRivals or @JaceyZembal
Subscribe for free on YouTube:
For Jacey Zembal or The Wolfpack Central
Like on Facebook:
www.facebook.com/TheWolfpackCentral
Follow on Instagram/Threads/Blue Sky:
www.instagram.com/thewolfpackcentral
ATTENTION SUBSCRIBERS: Our NETWORK-WIDE, all-access pass allows you to read every premium message board in the Rivals.com network as part of a bundled add-on to your subscription!
Subscribers can add the All-Access Pass or a 3-Site Bundle in your account profile, under the Subscriptions tab: HERE
