Quick hits and notes from NC State’s 59-58 last-second win over Clemson at Spectrum Center in Charlotte Wednesday afternoon.
Play of the game
Clemson head coach Brad Brownell was calm in his postgame press conference, but he was not biting his tongue either. After the loss, Brownell said, “Really disappointed with the way the game ended. Too much at stake for things to end like that.”
The ending Brownell was referring to was Clemson sophomore guard Clyde Trapp being whistled for a shooting foul on NC State junior guard Markell Johnson with 2.6 seconds left. Johnson made both free throws, surviving an attempt by Clemson to ice him with a full timeout between shots. That put NC State up 59-58, the final margin in a crucial game for both teams.
Highlight of the game
Player of the game
Johnson had one of the best ACC Tournament games in Wolfpack history. He made 8 of 17 shots from the field, including 4 of 9 threes, and all three of his free throws, to finish with a game-high 23 points in 34 minutes of action. Johnson also had four assists and a steal and only turned it over twice.
He carried NC State at times and brought the Wolfpack faithful to life with back-to-back threes to put the Pack up 57-53 with 4:19 to go. Prior to those treys, the Pack had not led since it was up 4-3.
A historic comeback
This is the second largest halftime comeback ever in ACC Tournament history. The Pack was trailing 42-26 at the break and at one point was down 36-18 in the first half. It is also NC State’s largest come-from-behind win.
NC State now has six one-point wins in its ACC Tournament history. Of the previous five, on four occasions the Pack went on to win the conference title.
A tale of two halves
When these two teams played during the regular season, Clemson went 0-for-7 on three-pointers, marking the first time since 2012 that the Tigers did not make a shot from beyond the arc in a game.
To open this game, Clemson made 7 of its first 8 three-pointers. Behind its three-point barrage, the Tigers were able to open up its 36-18 lead with 7:37 left in the first half. Overall, Clemson finished the opening 20 minutes shooting 16 of 31 from the field, or 51.6 percent, and 8 of 13 on threes.
NC State meanwhile was 11 of 31, or 35.5 percent, and 1 of 10 on three-pointers.
Apparently there must be something about playing on one particular end of the court. In the second half NC State was 12 of 25, or 48.0 percent, and made 5 of 11 threes. Meanwhile Clemson made a paltry 6 of 31 shots (19.4 percent) and only 1 of 10 threes.
Another example of teams reversing scripts in the second half: Clemson jumped out to a 20-8 lead in the first 8:12 of the game. In the first 8:14 of the second half the Pack had outscored Clemson 21-9.
Neither team had an offensive performance to remember. The Pack won despite scoring its second fewest points in a game this year behind its infamous 24-point performance against Virginia Tech.
Bubble implications
Regardless of how it won, this game is only a positive for NC State. The Pack picks up a third quad one win (for the moment) and in the process probably dealt a death blow to Clemson’s NCAA Tournament hopes. The Tigers finish the season just 1-10 in quad one games while NC State improves to 3-8.
Ironically if the Tigers had won both of the games that the Pack took in the final seconds between the two teams, Clemson would have a 3-8 quad one record.
It’s hard to see any justification at this point to having Clemson ahead of NC State on the bubble line, so NC State enjoys the satisfaction of likely having improved its stock while simultaneously severely damaging a fellow bubble team.
As of Wednesday morning, bracketmatrix.com had NC State as the last team receiving a bye based on the consensus of 112 brackets, but the Pack was also only on 70 brackets, fewest of the at-large teams in the field.
Another benefit for NC State is that this is the Pack’s third neutral court win, two of them quad ones, and the Pack improves to 7-6 overall away from home.
Spotted at the game
NC State fifth-year senior Eric Lockett went through warm-ups and was in uniform. He had been reinstated to the team Tuesday afternoon. However, Lockett did not play. When asked by The Wolfpacker after the game what his availability would be, Keatts answered:
“I don’t know yet. It would be fair to say because he hasn’t practice with our team yet, and so I couldn’t even tell you what type of shape he’s in.”
Wolfpack outgoing director of athletics Debbie Yow could also be seen looking for her seat before the game, and fans snapped photos with NC State legends David Thompson and Tommy Burleson.
Scoring between official timeouts
This year we have kept track of the scoring between each official timeout to help give an idea of the game flow. Note NC State outscored Clemson in every stanza of the second half except the final four minutes where both teams had just two points:
First half
20:00-14:34: Clemson 15, NC State 6
14:34-11:48: Clemson 5, NC State 2
11:48-7:35: Clemson 16, NC State 10
7:35-3:37: NC State 8, Clemson 0
3:37-Halftime: Clemson 6, NC State 0
Second half
20:00-15:50: NC State 11, Clemson 6
15:50-11:36: NC State 10, Clemson 3
11:36-6:31: NC State 4, Clemson 2
6:31-3:56: NC State 6, Clemson 3
3:56-Final: NC State 2, Clemson 2
Game scores
Using Hollinger’s measure of productivity, players are graded 1-40 with 10 being average.
Johnson: 16.3
Fifth-year senior forward Torin Dorn: 8.3
Redshirt sophomore center DJ Funderburk: 6.1
Redshirt junior center Wyatt Walker: 4.2
Sophomore guard Braxton Beverly: 1.5
Sophomore guard Blaker Harris: 1.0
Freshman forward Jericole Hellems: 0.6
Redshirt junior wing C.J. Bryce: 0.5
Redshirt sophomore guard Devon Daniels: -0.3
Plus/minus
Here is the plus/minus for each player (the difference between points scored while they were on the floor) on NCSU.
• Funderburk +10 (20 minutes played)
• Hellems +6 (10)
• Bryce +5 (35)
• Beverly +1 (35)
• Daniels - (20)
• Johnson -1 (35)
• Dorn -1 (32)
• Harris -2 (3)
• Walker -13 (18)
What the win means
The Pack improves to 22-10 while Clemson falls to 19-13. The Pack leads the all-time series 103-53 and is 7-3 when playing CU in the ACC Tournament. NC State improved to 5-5 in games when it was the eighth seed.
NC State is 11-2 in day games (tips before 6 p.m.) and 10-7 on weekday contests. NC State is now 2-8 when trailing at the break. The only other time it wont his year after losing at halftime was when it trailed by eight at Miami (45-37) and won 87-82.
The game was broadcast on both Raycom and ESPN. During the season, we’ll keep track of how NC State does on the various networks.
- ACC Network Extra: 6-0
- ESPNU: 3-0
- RSN: 5-1
- Raycom: 6-4
- ESPN2: 2-3
- ESPN: 1-2
We will also track NC State’s records by month:
- November: 6-1
- December: 6-0
- January: 4-4
- February: 4-3
- March: 2-2
Other stats of note
• NC State had a 32-26 edge in points in the paint.
• Clemson dominated the boards, 42-34 overall and 14-7 on the offensive glass. That led to a 12-4 Tigers edge in second chance points.
• The Tigers had a 7-4 win in fast break points.
• Defensively, NC State had three blocks and three steals. Clemson had four steals to go with three rejections.
• NC State won the turnover margin 12-8, and State had a 10-6 edge in points off turnovers.
• NC State led for 2:33, Clemson for 36:26 and the game was tied for 1:01. The Pack’s largest lead was four and Clemson’s was 18.
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