Quick hits from NC State's loss at Boston College

Quick hits and notes from NC State basketball’s costly 71-68 loss at Boston College Sunday evening.

The game came down to the final possession. NC State got a defensive stop 20 seconds left and down one point. But everything went crazy at that point.

Redshirt junior wing Devon Daniels, who appeared to have been bumped near midcourt, had the ball knocked away by Boston College freshman guard Jay Heath. NC State sophomore forward Jericole Hellems dove for the loose ball, but instead of calling timeout, he tried to throw a pass. NCSU head coach Kevin Keatts said after the game he and Hellems tried calling timeout.

Boston College junior power forward Steffon Mitchell knocked the ball away. Mitchell then clearly stepped out of bounds and came back in to tap the ball ahead. NC State fans will argue that Mitchell should have been called out of bounds, and it may have also been a violation when Mitchell touched the ball first after stepping out.

Mitchell got the ball to BC sophomore forward Jairus Hamilton, who threw it down for a dunk with 8.8 seconds left to put the Eagles up 71-68.

The best NC State could do on its final possession was a fading three-pointer in the corner by fifth-year senior guard C.J. Bryce that was off the mark as time expired.

Truthfully, it belonged to a Boston College player. Senior center Nik Popovic would probably be one of the last guys you would suspect putting NC State shot-blocking redshirt freshman center Manny Bates on a poster, but Popovic did just that with 16:18 left in the game to put the Eagles up 48-41.

Boston College senior guard Derryck Thornton had played NC State once before. In 2016, he logged 23 minutes while battling foul trouble for Duke in what was an 88-80 Blue Devils win. That day, Thornton had seven points, two assists and three steals.

Thornton’s second game against NC State was in a different uniform and went much better. He went 5 for 11 from the field and was a perfect 11 for 11 at the line for 22 points, to go with five assists, five rebounds, two steals and only two turnovers in 39 minutes. Thornton was a point off his career high he set against Wake Forest in the season opener.

Thornton is a 76.1 percent free throw shooter this season. His previous highest total of free throws in a game was eight, which was done during his freshman campaign at Duke.

NC State will have only itself to blame for this loss as it allowed Boston College to lead for all but 3:41. The Eagles went on a 13-2 run to take an early 15-6 lead, and from that point until 9:09 left in the second half, when NCSU sliced the lead down to 56-52, Boston College maintained an advantage between 5-12 points.

On six different occasions, NC State had cut Boston College’s lead to five points during that stretch only to have the Eagles answer.

Two players in particular will want to forget Sunday:

• Senior guard Markell Johnson played only six minutes in the first half, but not because of foul trouble (he only had one). It was because of his ineffectiveness. Johnson then picked up three quick fouls in the second and finished the game playing only 18 minutes, a season-low for someone who has been on the court for at least 30 minutes in all but two contests he played this year.

Especially harmful was that in his 18 minutes, Johnson turned it over six times.

• Junior guard Braxton Beverly had a difficult shooting game, missing all five of his shot attempts, including four three-pointers, and going 1 of 2 at the free-throw line. It is only the third game this year Beverly failed to make a shot.

NC State ran the full ends of the spectrum on its three-game road trip. It won the most important game — at Syracuse. However, it also lost the one it could least afford to drop — at Boston College.

NC State now has three quad three losses on the season (home losses to Georgia Tech and UNC and the road loss at BC). There is a slim hope that perhaps those defeats to the Yellow Jackets and BC could be promoted to quad twos, but the Pack already has a spotty record on quad two games (3-4), so that would be a double-edge sword.

The result in terms of NCAA Tournament hopes is that NC State realistically is in a difficult situation where it probably needs, at a minimum, two wins out of three among home games Duke and FSU and a road date against the Blue Devils.

The loss also gives Virginia a comfortable two-game cushion in the race for the final double-bye in the ACC Tournament.

NC State senior forward Pat Andree was not available as he continues to battle an ankle sprain, and thus was on the bench in street clothes.

The Wolfpack added five players last spring. One is a transfer sitting out (guard Thomas Allen), one is taking an academic redshirt (wing Dereon Seabron), two were injured (Andree and forward A.J. Taylor) and one didn’t get off the bench (center Danny Dixon). That means NC State got zero minutes out of its five spring signees.

Here we keep track of the scoring between each official timeout to help give an idea of the game flow:

First half

20:00-15:52: Boston College 10, NC State 4

15:52-11:44: Boston College 7, NC State 4

11:44-7:43: Boston College 9, NC State 6

7:43-3:54: NC State 13, Boston College 6

3:54-Halftime: Boston College 8, NC State 6

Second half

20:00-15:55: NC State 8, Boston College 8

15:55-11:44: Boston College 5, NC State 4

11:44-7:43: NC State 9, Boston College 4

7:43-3:11: NC State 12, Boston College 7

3:11-Final: Boston College 7, NC State 2

Using Hollinger’s measure of productivity, players are graded 1-40 with 10 being average for an NBA player.

Bates: 11.3

Hellems: 10.9

Bryce: 9.5

Daniels: 8.2

Funderburk: 7.4

Johnson: -0.6

Beverly: -2.6

Here is the plus/minus for each player (the difference between points scored while they were on the floor) on NCSU.

• Hellems +4 (32 minutes played)

• Bryce +1 (38)

• Beverly +1 (28)

• Bates -1 (19)

• Daniels -2 (36)

• Funderburk -9 (29)

• Johnson -9 (18)

NC State is 16-9 overall and 7-7 in the ACC, and Boston College is 13-13 and 7-8. NC State leads the all-time series 13-12, and it is 3-2 against the Eagles under head coach Kevin Keatts.

The Pack is 5-6 away from home this year, including 5-5 in true road games. NC State is 9-4 in night games (played after 6 p.m.), 8-5 in weekend games and 1-7 when trailing at halftime.

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

- ESPN+: 1-0

- RSN: 4-2

- ESPN2: 3-2

- ACC Network: 4-3

- ESPN: 1-2

We will also track NC State’s records by month:

- November: 5-2

- December: 5-1

- January: 4-4

- February: 2-2

• NC State won the battle in the paint, 40-32.

• BC had the slight edge in fast-break points, 17-16.

• NC State’s bench outscored Boston College’s reserves, 16-4.

• The Eagles had the edge in turnover margin, 16-15, but more importantly had a more decisive advantage in points off turnovers, 18-12.

• NC State won the battle on the boards, 35-32 overall and 12-7 on the offensive glass. The Pack had an 11-6 advantage on second-chance points.

• Defensively, NC State had four blocks and nabbed eight steals. The Eagles had no blocks and 10 steals.

• NC State’s largest lead was two points, while Boston College’s was 12. NC State led for 0:59 compared to 36:19 for Boston College. The game was tied for 2:42.

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