Quick hits and notes from NC State’s 94-93 season-ending loss to Lipscomb during the quarterfinals of the NIT in front of sold out and at times deafening crowd of 5,500 fans at Reynolds Coliseum in Raleigh on Wednesday evening.
Play of the game
Lipscomb junior guard Kenny Cooper is part of one of the most experienced starting lineups you will see in college basketball. The Bison start two juniors and three seniors, so it is not surprising that Cooper and Lipscomb responded when NC State junior guard Markell Johnson drove to the basket to put the Wolfpack up 93-92 with 9.6 seconds left.
Cooper was able to maintain possession against some tough defense from Johnson, who nearly poked the ball away from Cooper twice in the backcourt, and got free for a shot just inside the elbow at the free throw to win the game with 1.7 seconds left for Lipscomb.
Highlight of the game
Wolfpack redshirt sophomore center DJ Funderburk had an impressive dunk follow on a missed shot from redshirt sophomore wing Devon Daniels to tie the game at 60-60 with 12:50 left.
Player of the game
Lipscomb senior guard Garrison Mathews was the Atlantic Sun Player of the Year for a reason, and he had the night of his life against NC State. Mathews, who seemed to thrive in the hostile environment of Reynolds and even engaged the fans on multiple occasions, made 14 of 24 shots, including 8 of 13 three-pointers, en route to 44 points, the most ever scored against NC State in Reynolds and tied for the second most period behind only Auburn’s John Mengelt, who scored 45 points in Auburn in 1970.
Mathews is just the eighth player to score at least 40 on the Pack. NC State is 2-6 in those games.
For Mathews, it topped his previous career-best of 43 points he had in 2018 against Kennesaw State. He went over the 2,400 career points mark (2,429) and 350 career threes (354), the latter an A-Sun conference record.
NC State’s player of the game
In his final game in a Wolfpack uniform, fifth-year senior forward Torin Dorn had himself a career day. Dorn made 15 of 22 shots from the field and 4 of 5 free throws for a career-high 34 points, breaking 30 points for the first and only time in college. He also had nine rebounds, just missing what would have been his 15th career double-double.
Dorn broke the NC State record for most points scored by a Wolfpack player in a NIT game. Johnson and Hawkeye Whitney (in 1978) had the previous high at 26 points.
Dorn’s shooting were new personal bests in both field goals made and attempted. He previously went 10 of 16 in this year’s season opener against Mount St. Mary’s, which also resulted in his prior career-high of 28 points.
He ends the year leading the Pack in scoring at an even 14.0 points per contest. That is the lowest average to lead NC State since Tracy Smith also averaged 14.0 points in 2010-11.
Strong offensive performance
NC State had not shot better than 50.0 percent since ACC play began. Against Lipscomb, NC State made 38 of 72 shots from the field for 52.8 percent, its best performance since shooting 62.5 percent in a win over Loyola (Md.) in its final pre-ACC game. Wednesday tied for the Pack’s eighth best percentage of the year.
NC State also made 9 of 19 three-pointers, thanks in large part to Johnson’s 4-for-4 effort in the second half. Johnson ends the year shooting 42.2 percent on threes to lead the Pack.
Yet that was not good enough because Lipscomb made 14 of 28 threes itself. That is a season-high allowed by NC State and just the sixth time in 36 games a team made at least 10 threes against the Wolfpack this year.
NC State’s three-point shooting defense had been one of its strengths. The Pack came into Wednesday allowing opponents to shoot just 30.1 percent from long range, fourth lowest in the ACC. Its 202 allowed threes were also a conference low.
Lipscomb also made 50.0 of its overall shots, becoming the first team against NC State this year to hit at least half of its shots from both inside and outside the arc.
Spotted at the game
Former NC State and current Oakland Raiders quarterback Mike Glennon was behind the scorer’s table, and even he got agitated at times at the officiating.
Ted “TV Teddy” Valentine was among the officials there, but it was not Valentine who gave head coach Kevin Keatts his lone technical of the season, one that Keatts admitted he deserved after arguing a questionable goaltending charge.
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
20:00-15:25: NC State 13, Lipscomb 11
15:25-11:27: Lipscomb 11, NC State 9
11:27-7:24: NC State 8, Lipscomb 4
7:24-3:29: Lipscomb 9, NC State 8
3:29-Halftime: NC State 9, Lipscomb 3
Second half
20:00-15:55: Lipscomb 11, NC State 9
15:55-10:45: Lipscomb 16, NC State 9
10:45-7:21: NC State 13, Lipscomb 10
7:21-3:51: Lipscomb 9, NC State 7
3:51-Final: Lipscomb 10, NC State 8
Game scores
Using Hollinger’s measure of productivity, players are graded 1-40 with 10 being average.
Dorn: 28.1
Johnson: 19.8
Redshirt junior wing C.J. Bryce: 7.5
Redshirt junior center Wyatt Walker: 5.3
Daniels: 4.9
Funderburk: 4.7
Sophomore guard Braxton Beverly: 1.9
Freshman forward Jericole Hellems: 1.9
Sophomore guard Blake Harris: 1.5
Fifth-year senior wing Eric Lockett: -0.4
Plus/minus
Here is the plus/minus for each player (the difference between points scored while they were on the floor) on NCSU.
• Walker +4 (23 minutes played)
• Hellems +3 (4)
• Bryce +1 (28)
• Daniels -1 (27)
• Lockett +1 (1)
• Johnson 0 (22)
• Funderburk -1 (15)
• Harris -3 (15)
• Beverly -4 (27)
• Dorn -5 (37)
What the loss means
The Pack’s season is over at 24-12 while Lipscomb moves on to Madison Square Garden for the semifinals of the NIT against Wichita State on Tuesday with a 28-7 record. The two teams have now split their two all-time meetings.
NC State finished 13-9 in night games (tips after 6 p.m.) and 11-9 on weekday contests. NC State went 20-4 when leading at halftime (the Pack was up 47-38). It was also the largest halftime lead blown this year, topping the seven points it was ahead at Wisconsin. The Pack went 17-5 at home.
The game was broadcast on ESPNU. During the season, we’ll keep track of how NC State does on the various networks.
- ACC Network Extra: 6-0
- RSN: 5-1
- ESPNU: 4-1
- Raycom: 6-5
- ESPN2: 3-3
- ESPN: 1-3
We will also track NC State’s records by month:
- November: 6-1
- December: 6-0
- January: 4-4
- February: 4-3
- March: 4-4
Other stats of note
• NC State had a 44-34 edge in points in the paint.
• In a fast-paced game, the Bisons had a 26-17 edge in fast-break points. That is the second most points allowed on the fast break this season (Pitt had 28 points.)
• NC State won the battle on the boards overall 41-32 and offensively 15-10. Both teams however had 14 second-chance points.
• Lipscomb won the turnover margin 12-11 and had a 19-17 advantage in points off turnovers.
• Defensively, NC State had seven blocks and seven steals, and so did the Bisons.
• NC State led for 29:12, Lipscomb for 5:58 and the game was tied for 4:50. The Pack’s largest lead was nine and Lipscomb’s was five. The only time NCSU led for more of the game and lost was when it had the lead for 31:51 at Wisconsin.
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