Quick hits and notes from NC State basketball’s 72-60 win over Appalachian State on Sunday at PNC Arena.
Play Of The Game
Appalachian State cut the NC State lead to just two points, 50-48, with 9:18 left in the game. NC State responded well, and redshirt junior wing Devon Daniels provided the exclamation point when he hit a corner three-pointer to give the Wolfpack a comfortable 61-49 lead with 5:38 left.
Highlight Of The Game
Appalachian State 6-7 sophomore forward Kendall Lewis drove on the break, getting a head of steam. It didn’t matter with redshirt freshman center Manny Bates blocking his shot with 4:57 left in the first half. Bates finished with five rejections in the contest.
Player Of The Game
Redshirt junior post player D.J. Funderburk scored a career-high 22 points to go with nine rebounds in easily his best game of the season. He went 10 of 14 from the field and made his two free throws. Funderburk thrived at power forward spot while playing with Bates.
Markell Johnson Still Struggling With His Shot
NC State senior point guard Markell Johnson’s final statistics Sunday were fine, but inconsistency with his shooting remains a concern. The 6-foot-1, 175-pound Johnson had 12 points, 11 rebounds and six assists in the win, but he also missed all five three-pointers and mysteriously went 4 of 11 at the free-throw line, including one air ball.
Johnson’s free-throw percentage fell to 51.4 percent on the season. He shot 57.7 percent from the line his freshman year, but then climbed to 74.7 percent as a junior. Conversely, he shot 25.0 percent from three-point land his freshman year, then rose up to 42.2 percent last year but is now at 26.9 percent from beyond the arc as a senior.
The regression has been surprising on both accounts, but the ACC slate will give him time to turn it around.
NC State Gets Stiff Challenge In Second Half
Johnson made a mid-range jumper with 17:55 left in the game, stretching the lead to 39-28. Appalachian State made a 11-2 run, capped by an Adrian Delph layup to cut the lead to 41-39 with 13:50 left. The Mountaineers never led in the second half, but did come within two points on two different occasions. NC State eventually put away Appalachian State with a 12-1 run of its own.
Spotted At The Game
NC State senior power forward signee Nick Farrar of Apex (N.C.) Friendship and sophomore power forward De’Ante Green of Arden (N.C.) Christ School were both unofficially visiting for the game.
The 6-9, 205-pound Green attended an NC State football game this past fall with his CP3 traveling team teammates. He has offers from Wake Forest, Xavier, Penn State, DePaul and Texas A&M, among others. He helped lead Christ School to the NCISAA 4A state title game, where they fell to NC State senior signee Camren Hayes and Greensboro (N.C.) Day 67-53. Green had six points in the loss.
Scoring Between Official Timeouts
Here we keep track of the scoring between each official timeout to help give an idea of the game flow:
First half
20:00-15:34: NC State 10, Appalachian State 4
15:34-11:44: Appalachian State 5, NC State 4
11:44-6:52: Appalachian State 9, NC State 6
6:52-3:48: NC State 4, Appalachian State 2
3:48-Halftime: NC State 11, Appalachian State 6
Second half
20:00-15:11: Appalachian State 8, NC State 5
15:11-11:58: NC State 7, Appalachian State 7
11:58-9:26: NC State 4, Appalachian State 3
9:26-7:11: Appalachian State 4, NC State 4
7:11-3:48: NC State 8, Appalachian State 5
3:48-Final: NC State 10, Appalachian State 7
Game Scores
Using Hollinger’s measure of productivity, players are graded 1-40 with 10 being average for an NBA player.
Daniels: 20.6
Funderburk: 19.7
Bates: 10.7
Johnson: 5.2
Sophomore forward Jericole Hellems: 3.8
Senior center Danny Dixon: 0.3
Freshman guard Chase Graham: 0
Freshman forward Max Farthing: 0
Senior forward Pat Andree: -1.3
Senior guard Braxton Beverly: -1.4
Plus/Minus
Here is the plus/minus for each player (the difference between points scored while they were on the floor) on NCSU.
• Funderburk +15 (28 minutes played)
• Daniels +15 (37)
• Beverly +13 (36)
• Johnson +12 (37)
• Bates +3 (24)
• Hellems +2 (20)
• Andree 0 (15)
• Dixon 0 (2)
• Graham 0 (0)
• Farthing 0 (0)
What The Win Means
NC State is 10-3 overall and Appalachian State fell to 8-5. The Wolfpack now leads the all-time series 13-1, with the previous last meeting a 97-64 win on Dec. 15, 2016. NCSU has an all-time record of 22-1 against current members of the Sun Belt Conference, and have a 17-game winning streak in non-conference home games at PNC Arena.
NCSU concluded its non-conference regular season slate with a 9-2 record.
The Pack is 6-1 in daytime games (played before 6 p.m.) and improved to 10-1 when leading at halftime. NCSU improved to 10-2 when leading with five minutes left.
The game was broadcast on ACC Network. During the season, we’ll keep track of how NC State does on the various networks.
- ACC Network Extra: 3-0
- RSN: 2-0
- ESPN+: 1-0
- ACC Network: 3-1
- ESPN2: 1-2
We will also track NC State’s records by month:
- November: 5-2
- December: 5-1
Other Stats Of Note
• NC State won the battle in the paint, 44-36.
• NCSU outscored Appalachian State 10-4 on fast-break points.
• NC State’s bench crushed Appalachian State's reserves, 30-10.
• The Mountaineers had the edge in turnover margin 15-10, and also won points off turnovers 18-14.
• NC State had its third straight strong game on the boards, winning 53-34 overall and 17-12 on offensive rebounds. NCSU won second-chance points 22-10.
• Defensively, NC State had seven blocks and nabbed seven steals. The Mountaineers had one block and eight steals.
• NC State led for 36:25, and Appalachian State led for 29 seconds. The Pack’s largest lead was 15 with 1:33 left in the second half.
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