Quick hits and notes from NC State’s 94-74 win over Wake Forest in front of 16,053 fans at PNC Arena in Raleigh Sunday evening.
Play of the game
NC State led the game from start to finish after scoring the first nine points of the contest, but Wake Forest hung around longer than perhaps the score indicated. When WFU senior guard Brandon Childress made a three-pointer with 16:25 left, he had cut the Pack’s lead to 46-41.
That’s when NC State junior guard Markell Johnson made the sixth of his six threes. Johnson’s response came just 26 seconds after Childress’ trey and sparked a 10-0 Wolfpack run that forced Wake Forest to call a timeout with 14:04 left, trailing NC State 56-41.
Highlight of the game
Player of the game
This was a special night for Johnson. He made 9 of 13 shots, including 6 of 9 three-pointers, en route to 25 points to go with six rebounds and three assists.
Head coach Kevin Keatts called Johnson’s performance “special” and added, “There’s no question he was the difference in the game.”
Johsnon scored a career-high for an ACC game (previous best was 20 done twice including the ACC opener this year at Miami) and was two points off his personal best of 27 against Auburn earlier this season. The six threes topped the five he had versus those Tigers for a new career-high.
On the season, Johnson is shooting 41.8 percent on three-pointers after Sunday's performance.
For those wondering, the Wolfpack record for threes in a game is nine set by Rodney Monroe against UNC Asheville in 1989.
How did NC State lose to that team?
Maybe it had to do with the fact that Johnson did not play, his first game out after bruising his back following a nasty fall in a home win over Pittsburgh.
That said, the damage of that 71-67 defeat cannot really be understated. Consider the hypothetical scenario that the Wolfpack prevailed in Winston-Salem on Jan. 15:
• NC State would be 9-6 in the ACC, just one game behind Virginia Tech in the logjam behind the top three (Virginia, Duke and UNC) for the coveted double-bye in the conference tournament.
• The Pack dropped 14 spots in the NET rankings following that loss in Winston-Salem. Without knowing the formula, one could presume that the Pack would probably be over a dozen spots higher and in the top 20 of the rankings instead of entering Sunday at No. 32.
• NC State would be perfect in non-quad one games. Of its eight defeats, seven have been to teams ranked in the top 25 of the NET rankings, including six in the top 13. The lone “bad loss” of any note is that setback at Wake Forest.
A reemerging bench?
With good health, NC State will have nine healthy players at its disposal since it seems unlikely that suspended wing Eric Lockett, a fifth-year senior, will return this spring.
All nine players received double-digit minutes Sunday evening, with sophomore point guard Blake Harris getting into the contest for 17 minutes. That was Harris’ most minutes since he played 18 against USC Upstate Dec. 22. In ACC action, Harris had previously not played more than six minutes in a contest.
He finished with five points, five rebounds, three assists, a steal and no turnovers Sunday.
Also coming off the bench for his most productive outing in an ACC game was freshman forward Jericole Hellems. He went on a personal 8-0 run at one point in the second half and finished with 14 points in 19 minutes. Hellems had scored 35 points in the first 12 ACC games and has 25 in the past three, including nine points at No. 1 Duke.
The 14 points against Wake were two off his career-high he did twice in non-conference action — home wins over Western Carolina and Loyola Maryland.
Updating the ACC standings
The Pack remains solidly by itself in eighth place in the ACC. Here’s a full look at the standings with tiebreakers factored in going into this weekend:
1. Duke (12-2)
2. North Carolina (12-2)
3. Virginia (12-2)
4. Virginia Tech (10-5)
5. Florida State (9-5)
6. Syracuse (9-5)
7. Louisville (9-6)
8. NC State (8-7)
9. Clemson (6-8)
10. Boston College (4-10)
11. Miami (4-10)
12. Georgia Tech (4-11)
13. Wake Forest (3-11)
14. Notre Dame (3-11)
15. Pittsburgh (2-12)
That means if the ACC Tournament was held today that the Pack would play Clemson in the second round, with the winner playing Duke. The Pack needs just one more win or a loss by Boston College to clinch avoiding having to play Tuesday in the opening round.
Spotted at the game
NC State brought out all the stops for the evening, honoring T.J. Warren’s No. 24 before the game, saluting the first African-American athlete in the ACC in Irwin Holmes and taking a moment to recognize to David Thompson on his winning the Naismith Award, which is celebrating its 50th year of existence. The sight of Thompson at midcourt even had Wake Forest head coach Danny Manning applauding.
A couple of notable class of 2021 guards at the game were Carter Whitt from Raleigh Leesvile Road High and Cam Hayes from Greensboro Day.
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
20:00-15:48: NC State 9, Wake Forest 3
15:48-10:28: Wake Forest 10, NC State 9
10:28-7:58: NC State 7, Wake Forest 4
7:58-3:52: Wake Forest 7, NC State 5
3:52-Halftime: NC State 11, Wake Forest 8
Second half
20:00-15:38: Wake Forest 9, NC State 8
15:38-11:00: NC State 12, Wake Forest 6
11:00-7:45: NC State 5, Wake Forest 4
7:45-3:15: NC State 12, Wake Forest 12
3:15-Regulation: NC State 16, Wake Forest 11
Game scores
Using Hollinger’s measure of productivity, players are graded 1-40 with 10 being average.
Johnson: 24.0
Fifth-year senior wing Torin Dorn: 9.7
Hellems: 9.3
Redshirt sophomore wing Devon Daniels: 8.1
Harris: 7.9
Redshirt sophomore center DJ Funderburk: 7.4
Sophomore guard Braxton Beverly: 7.1
Redshirt junior center Wyatt Walker: 3.6
Redshirt junior wing C.J. Bryce: 3.5
Plus/minus
Here is the plus/minus for each player (the difference between points scored while they were on the floor) on NCSU.
• Beverly +18 (23 minutes played)
• Johnson +14 (30)
• Dorn +13 (24)
• Funderburk +11 (22)
• Walker +11 (15)
• Daniels +10 (23)
• Harris +9 (17)
• Bryce +9 (26)
• Hellems +5 (19)
What the win means
The Pack is 20-8 overall on the season and 8-7 in the ACC. Wake falls to 10-16 and 3-11. The Pack leads the all-time series 144-106, and NC State is 14-5 in games played at PNC Arena between the two teams. Overall, the Pack is 100-55 at home versus the Deacs, who becomes the first program to lose 100 games in Raleigh to the Pack.
Keatts gets to 20 wins for a second straight season at NC State and one game quicker than he did a year ago. He has the second most wins (41) in his first two seasons at NC State behind Everett Case’s 55 (1947-48) and Mark Gottfried’s 48 (2012-13)
NC State improves to 15-3 at home. It is 11-7 in night games (tips after 6 p.m.) and 11-2 on weekend contests. NC State is to 19-1 when leading at halftime.
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: 4-0
- ESPNU: 3-0
- Raycom: 5-4
- ESPN2: 2-2
- ESPN: 0-2
We will also track NC State’s records by month:
- November: 6-1
- December: 6-0
- January: 4-4
- February: 4-3
- March: 0-0
Other stats of note
• NC State outrebounded Wake Forest 47-37 overall and 14-11 on the offensive glass, but the Deacons had a 17-14 advantage in second-chance points.
• NC State won the points in the paint, 36-32.
• The Pack had a 24-18 win in fast break points.
• Defensively, NC State had seven blocks and five steals. Funderburk matched his career high with four rejections. WFU had five steals and two rejections.
• NC State’s bench outscored the Deacons’ reserves 37-21.
• The Pack led for 39:33 and the game was tied for 0:27. NC State’s largest lead was 23 points.
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