Quick hits from NC State's 71-67 loss at Wake Forest
Quick hits and notes from NC State’s stunning 71-67 loss at Wake Forest in front of 10,157 fans, many of them wearing red and white, at LJVM Coliseum in Winston-Salem Tuesday evening.
Play of the game
Every season there seems to be that random player who rises up and has a big moment against NC State. This year’s candidate could end up being Wake Forest grad transfer Torry Johnson.
Johnson has started nine times this year in his first action with the Deacons after previously playing for Northern Arizona. Yet he was only averaging 5.4 points and shooting just 32.8 percent from the field, including making only 5 of 21 three-pointers.
However, with Wake clinging to a one-point lead at 67-66 and after a Deacons’ time out with 1:27 to go, it was Johnson who rose up from about 15-feet from the basket and nailed a crucial jumper with 1:17 to go to put WFU up by three.
Highlight of the game
This game, truthfully, was pretty devoid of highlights. Wake did get a couple of dunks from sophomore big man Olivier Sarr off some nice passes, but that was about it.
Player of the game
You could make a case for Johnson off the bench. He finished with 11 points and did not miss a shot from the field, going 3 for 3 overall and making a three-pointer. He also made all four of his free throw attempts, including two with 13.3 seconds left.
On that possession, NC State elected to play defense rather than foul while down two, and Johnson was able to draw the whistle with just one second left on the shot clock. He calmly made both to put the contest out of reach.
That first half
Ugly. NC State had its largest halftime deficit ever under head coach Kevin Keatts, trailing 42-27 at the break. Eventually that lead swelled to 22 before NC State made an epic comeback to tie the game at 58 with 7:44 left.
The Pack made just 11 of 37 shots from the field, including 1 of 14 threes, in the opening 20 minutes. It improved in the second half, but the overall shooting percentage of 37.0 percent for the contest is a new season-low for NC State.
The only player who had something going positively in the first half was fifth-year senior wing Torin Dorn. He had made 6 of 10 shots for 13 points. The rest of the team was 5 of 27 from the field for 14 points.
In the process of that first half, Dorn did reach the 1,000 career points at NC State milestone, becoming the 52nd player in school history to reach it.
Unable to finish the comeback
NC State has not won a game when trailing by double digits at halftime since rallying from a 15-point deficit to beat Louisiana Tech on Dec. 23, 2014. That was the 16th and to date final time NC State has rallied from double digits down at halftime to win. The largest margin overcome was 17 points to Oregon State in 1992.
However, after tying the game on a 17-2 run that was part of an extended 29-7 run, NC State went cold from the field, and Keatts also cited too much individual play in preventing a historic comeback. The Wolfpack took three different shots after tying the score that would have given it a lead for the first time since State was up 12-10 with nearly 13 minutes to go in the first half, but all three missed.
Beverly also had a three-pointer that would have tied the game with about one minute left fell off the mark.
Free throw disparities
Wake Forest had a huge advantage at the free throw line in this contest. The Deacons, a good free throw shooting team, made 23 of 28 compared to NC State going 7 of 9.
It extends what has been a trend through four games thus far in ACC play. Thus far every team the Pack has played has been to the line more times than NC State.
• Miami was 16 of 29 compared to NC State’s 14 of 18.
• UNC was 22 of 26 compared to NC State’s 12 of 17.
• Pittsburgh was 24 of 28 compared to NC State’s 19 of 25.
Overall, NC State has been outscored by 33 points at the free throw line in conference action, an average of 8.3 points a game. There are several reasons for this. Pitt and Wake played predominantly zone defenses, tempting NC State into become a jump-shooting team in both games. That tends to draw less fouls.
NCSU also had to foul late against UNC to try to get back into that contest.
Spotted at the game
Former Wake Forest great and NBA veteran Josh Howard was in attendance. Also at the game was a large contingency of NC State fans who at times sounded much louder than the Wake fans.
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:
First half
20:00-15:20: NC State 10, Wake 6
15:22-11:46: Wake 8, NC State 4
11:46-7:01: Wake 14, NC State 8
7:01-3:47: Wake 4, NC State 2
3:47-Halftime: Wake 10, NC State 3
Second half
20:00-15:53: Wake 11, NC State 8
15:53-10:03: NC State 14, Wake 3
10:03-7:55: NC State 7, Wake 2
7:55-3:51: Wake 6, NC State 4
3:51-Final: NC State 7, Wake 7
Plus/minus
Here is the plus/minus for each player (the difference between points scored while they were on the floor) on NCSU.
• Redshirt sophomore center DJ Funderburk +15 (21 minutes played)
• Redshirt sophomore guard Devon Daniels +6 (25)
• Redshirt junior wing C.J. Bryce +2 (36)
• Beverly -1 (36)
• Freshman forward Jericole Hellems -4 (6)
• Fifth-year senior wing Eric Lockett -7 (25)
• Sophomore guard Blake Harris -7 (3)
• Dorn -9 (32)
• Redshirt junior center Wyatt Walker -15 (15)
Game scores
The following are game scores using Hollinger’s measure of productively. The scale is 0-40 with 10 considered average.
• Dorn: 14.4
• Bryce: 11.2
• Funderburk: 7.2
• Lockett: 3.5
• Walker: 3.5
• Beverly: 2.3
• Daniels: 1.6
• Hellems: -0.3
• Harris: -1
What the loss means
The Pack is 14-3 overall on the season and 2-2 in the ACC. Wake improves to 8-8 and 1-3. NC State has lost 6 of its last 7 games played in Winston-Salem. The Pack still leads the all-time series 143-106 but is just 6-23 in games played at LJVM Coliseum. It is 29-43 overall in Winston-Salem against the Deacs.
The game was broadcast on Raycom. This the second of five straight games broadacst by Raycom. During the season, we’ll keep track of how NC State does on the various networks.
- ACC Network Extra: 6-0
- RSN: 3-0
- ESPNU: 2-0
- ESPN2: 2-1
- Raycom: 1-1
- ESPN: 0-1
We will also track NC State’s records by month:
- November: 6-1
- December: 6-0
- January: 2-2
- February: 0-0
- March: 0-0
Other stats of note
• Wake Forest won the battle in the paint, outscoring State, 36-34.
• The Wolfpack won the turnover margin 11-9, and had an 18-12 points off turnovers advantage.
• The Deacons had a 17-10 win in fast-break points.
• Defensively, NC State had four blocks and eight steals. Wake had eight steals and four rejections.
• NC State’s overall rebound advantage was 41-39, including 18-12 on the offensive glass. NC State had a 19-12 edge in second chance points
• Wake’s bench outscored the State’s reserves 23-13. In its previous two games the NCSU bench had a 97-18 advantage on their counterparts.
• Wake Forest led for 31:58, NC State for 5:44, and the game was tied for 1:59. The largest lead for State was six and for the Deacons it was 22.
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