Here are some the thoughts from those who covered NC State Wolfpack basketball's 77-68 loss to Syracuse on Tuesday evening.
• Matt Carter, TheWolfpacker.com — Quick hits from NC State's loss to Syracuse
In 12 games against the higher-level of competition, which was 11 conference contests plus a road date at St. Louis, there has been some startling differences between first half and second half margins for NC State.
The Wolfpack has outscored those teams collectively by 31 points in the first half, leading at the break in eight of them. It should be noted that included Florida State trouncing the Pack by 25 points in the first half. If you remove that, NC State has a plus-56 margin at the break in the other 10 games.
Yet the second half, the Wolfpack is down 81 points in those 11 contests. Only once has NC State not been outscored, and that was when it had the same amount of points as UNC in a loss in Chapel Hill. (In fairness, NC State likely would have won the second half at Boston College had Keatts not played deep reserves late in the game.)
• Justin H. Williams, TheWolfpacker.com — Notebook: Turnovers cost Pack in 77-68 loss to Syracuse
Many times, it's difficult to pinpoint just one area that cost a team a game. Tuesday night was not one of them.
NC State (8-8, 4-7 ACC) committed a season-high 20 turnovers en route to a 77-68 home loss to Syracuse (11-6, 5-5 ACC).
Despite committing 13 first-half turnovers, the Wolfpack trailed by just one point at halftime after shooting 52.4 percent from the field in the opening 20 minutes. The shots stopped falling at the same high clip in the second half, and the Pack’s mistakes kept coming.
“The game, I think, speaks for itself,” NC State head coach Kevin Keatts said. “We turned the ball over 20 times, which is really not characteristic of us. I know we've had a few issues this year turning the ball over, but it wasn't a good night in that area.”
The Wolfpack’s 20 turnovers tied for the third-most in a single game under Keatts and the most since the beginning of the 2019-20 campaign.
One primary aspect of NC State’s identity under Keatts is winning the turnover margin and converting defensive takeaways into points on the other end. Syracuse was able to flip the script and do what the Pack intended to Tuesday night.
The Orange committed just 12 turnovers and outscored State 21-16 in points off of takeaways.
N.C. State had far too many turnovers and failed to make nearly enough defensive stops Tuesday to beat Syracuse at PNC Arena.
The Wolfpack, often careless with the ball, had 20 turnovers trying to solve the Syracuse zone. But the Orange was able to handle the Pack’s man-to-man defense in taking a 77-68 victory at PNC Arena.
Alan Griffin had 22 points and Buddy Boeheim found his shooting eye in the second half and finished 16 with for the Orange (11-6, 5-5 ACC). Syracuse used a late 9-0 run in the first half for a 34-33 lead at the break, given a boost by freshman Kadary Richmond, and maintained it in the second.
The Orange, pounded 78-61 by Clemson in its last game, converted the Pack’s mistakes into 21 points. Syracuse also was stronger on the offensive boards in the second half, turning 11 rebounds into 12 second-chance points.
The Orange built the lead to 65-55 in the second half on a Griffin 3-pointer with 8:22 to play. The Pack trimmed the lead to three with 4:46 left in regulation, but the Orange surged ahead again as Boeheim and Griffin scored.
When N.C. State coach Kevin Keatts took a look at the postgame stat sheet Tuesday after a 77-68 loss to Syracuse, it was hard to avoid or overlook the obvious.
In the turnover column, there was Jericole Hellems with four, Manny Bates with four, Cam Hayes with three, D.J. Funderburk with three ... 20 turnovers in all, by seven players.
“We were just careless with the ball tonight,” junior guard Thomas Allen said.
Careless and often indecisive. The Orange converted those 20 mistakes into 21 points. Adding to the frustration, Keatts said, were that some were “turnovers for touchdowns,” with the Pack unable to defend as the Orange came up with 11 steals.
To be sure, the Syracuse zone can be confounding. It’s a floating zone that can present a number of looks -- 2-3, 1-2-2, 1-3-1. It’s a basketball chess match and to defeat it a team must, as Keatts put it, find the cracks in the zone, handle the ball well and, of course, hit shots.
It also helps, Keatts said, to have taller guards who can see over the zone. Someone like Devon Daniels, the Pack’s 6-5 senior who Keatts said underwent successful ACL surgery on Tuesday.
Allen, who had 17 points to snap out of a shooting slump, is 6-1, as is freshman Shakeel Moore. Senior Braxton Beverly is listed at 6 feet but may be a tad shorter than that.
But indecision also can be a killer. Delay half a beat in making a pass and the zone can rotate and cover. And Syracuse also did an effective job Tuesday doubling up on Funderburk and Bates inside while also trapping when Bates had the ball in the corner.
“I think we second-guessed every decision we made,” Funderburk said. “The second-guesses were opportunities for them to get steals.”
• Rachel Bilenki, Technician — Pack men’s basketball falls to Syracuse for second time this season
The NC State men’s basketball team dropped the second game of its season series to Syracuse, losing 77-68 to the Orange in PNC Arena on Tuesday, Feb. 9.
While the Wolfpack was shooting over 50% in the first half, the high amount of turnovers for the Pack seemed to be the difference for this game. NC State ended this matchup with 20 turnovers, 13 in the first half alone, compared to Syracuse’s 12 overall.
“The game speaks for itself,” said head coach Kevin Keatts. “What’s a little frustrating is we turned the ball over 20 times, which is really not characteristic of us. I know we’ve had a few issues this year turning the ball over, but it was not a good night in that area… It’s just not good enough.”
The Pack ended a close first half, only down by one, with the largest lead by any team in the first half only being a mere six points. However, this was not the story for the second half. For the remainder of the game, Syracuse was able to hold the lead until the final buzzer. Even when NC State was able to find its shot in the second half, the Orange always found a way to answer.
“I felt fortunate at the half,” Keatts said. “We were down one but committed 13 turnovers. It actually could have been a lot worse because of the way we had turned the ball over. We have turned the ball over a little bit more this year then we’ve had in the past, that’s because we don’t have leadership in that area. But at the end of the day, we have to have better ball security.”
• Joe Giglio, WRALSportsFan.com — Zoned out. NC State falls to Syracuse.
The Orange (11-6, 5-5 ACC), trying to keep its dwindling NCAA tournament hopes alive, relied on the scoring from Griffin, who led them a 76-73 home win over the Wolfpack on Jan. 31.
Keatts also noted the Orange helped themselves with 14 offensive rebounds and 15 second-chance points.
NC State had only 11 turnovers in that first loss to the Orange. Guard Thomas Allen, who led the Wolfpack 17 points, said Syracuse didn't do anything differently on the defensive end.
"It was the same way, we were just careless with the ball tonight," Allen said.
Kadary Richmond had a toothache that almost prevented him from playing in Syracuse’s game against North Carolina State on Tuesday.
But Richmond did play, and for 25 minutes, he was a pain in the butt for the Wolfpack.
The Syracuse freshman and defensive ace was a one-man momentum swing late in the first half with three steals and six points in a span of two minutes, turning a 28-25 deficit into a 34-28 lead.
That stretch just before halftime became a critical moment in Syracuse’s 77-68 win over NC State at the PNC Arena in Raleigh, N.C.
But prior to the game, it was doubtful Richmond would be able to play for the Orange.
A tooth became impacted and Richmond wasn’t able to practice on Monday. Before the game, SU officials put out a statement on Twitter, indicating that Richmond was doubtful with an “illness.’'
“He was in agony yesterday,’' said Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim, adding that Richmond took some medication that helped on Tuesday. “He felt he could play and fortunately he made some big plays in the first half.’'
Syracuse made 3-point shots Tuesday night at North Carolina State.
The Orange converted an efficient 9-of-19 from the 3-point line. That .474 shooting percentage from deep distance was SU’s best performance from the 3-point line since the Orange men made 16-of-31 (.516) against Boston College in their other ACC road win this season.
Alan Griffin shot 4-of-7. Buddy Boeheim was 3-of-5. Robert Braswell came off the bench and went 1-of-2 in his five minutes of game action.
“Alan, this was his best game,” SU coach Jim Boeheim said. “We got people shots. We got Alan shots. We got Buddy shots.”
Buddy Boeheim drained the first 3-pointer he attempted Tuesday and Griffin was 2-of-3 from that distance in the first half. Those 3s helped SU keep pace with a Wolfpack team that went 4-for-8 from the 3-point line during that same span.
The Orange has struggled to consistently make 3-point shots this ACC season; its 9-of-19 performance Tuesday lifted SU to 11th in the conference in 3-point shooting (.337). To put that into perspective, Virginia leads the league in that category. The Cavaliers are making 41.3 percent of their 3s.
——
• Talk about it inside The State of Basketball
• Subscribe to our podcast on iTunes
• Learn more about our print and digital publication, The Wolfpacker
• Follow us on Twitter: @TheWolfpacker
• Like us on Facebook
