Here are some the thoughts from those who covered NC State Wolfpack basketball's 79-76 home win over North Carolina on Tuesday evening.
• Matt Carter, TheWolfpacker.com — Quick hits from NC State's win over North Carolina
One noteworthy stat from this game: NC State led for 37:48 and it never trailed after it took a 4-2 advantage. UNC tied the game once at 15-15, but that was when Moore made the first of his three first-half three-pointers.
Moore's personal 8-0 run put the Wolfpack up 23-15, and at one point the Wolfpack had a 17-point edge in the first half. However, it was never able to put away the Heels.
Credit though to the Wolfpack for being resilient. On five occasions in the second half, UNC cut the lead to two points before Platek got UNC the closest it would be at one point. With 10 seconds left, UNC for the seventh and final time in the second half sliced the lead to two points or less at 78-76.
Each time, the Wolfpack responded, and not once did the Heels tie it up or take a lead.
In 15 minutes on the floor, Moore had 17 points on 6-of-11 shooting, including a 3-of-4 mark on three-point attempts, two steals and one rebound. The 6-1, 180-pounder showed he could score at all three levels.
Just over a minute after entering the game during the first media timeout in the first half, Moore drained two corner threes of back-to-back possessions. He followed it up with a steal at halfcourt on the very next play, which resulted in a fast-break dunk. Eight points in a span of 59 seconds.
A minute later, he splashed a mid-range jumper to become the first Pack player to reach double figures in just eight first-half minutes.
He changed the game again in the second half with a dunk that was worth only two points on the scoreboard but likely felt like 10 points to the Wolfpack bench.
With a two-point Wolfpack lead and just over 10 minutes remaining, Moore had a good look from the corner for what could have been his fourth triple of the night. Instead of taking the shot, Moore wisely pump-faked a closing Garrison Brooks, dribbled right on a baseline drive and delivered a devastating left-handed slam over North Carolina seven-footer Walker Kessler.
Fans really would have loved to have seen this one live.
Played in a nearly empty PNC Arena, the N.C. State and North Carolina basketball rivalry came early this season, just three days before Christmas. The few fans in the building got the gift of being able to watch how the ACC contest played out.
N.C. State got Cam Hayes back but entered the game shorthanded again due to coronavirus issues in its program, but played its best basketball of the season. UNC, known for struggling early only to come back late and steal a win, was right on brand, and trailed by double-digits in the first half.
But Wolfpack coach Kevin Keatts and his team found a way to win, upsetting the No. 17 Tar Heels, 79-76 Tuesday night. It was Keatts’ first win over the Tar Heels in PNC.
“I’m proud of my team,” Keatts said. “I thought we fought for 40 minutes. Our guys, we bent a little bit, we never broke. We played a tremendous game. I’m excited about the way we played.”
“One of the things we talked about in recruiting is we want to get guys who are super tough, or skilled,” Keatts said. “With him, as we saw him, he was a really good basketball player.”
It was another word Keatts used to describe Moore.
“Fearless,” Keatts said.
The moment wasn’t too big for Moore and it was key on a night when State (5-1) needed an additional scoring threat to help Devon Daniels and Manny Bates. Moore came into the contest against UNC having scored eight points against Campbell, one shy of his previous season-high. He had eight points in his first three trips on the offensive end of the floor and it was obvious early that the 6-1 Moore had had this game circled on his calendar.
Moore played AAU basketball with Hayes, who scored seven points in his first game back after missing two straight due to the coronavirus, and the duo wanted to show they were equally as talented as Love and Davis. It’s something they discussed in the days leading up to the UNC game.
It must be old for North Carolina coach Roy Williams watching his team follow the same plot lines every game. Slow first half start. Double-digit deficit. Get focused to mount a comeback. And while Saturday’s win over Kentucky hinted the Tar Heels were ready to create a new narrative, Tuesday’s 79-76 loss at N.C. State was just another lame sequel.
“The difference in the game to me was their sense of urgency early in the game,” Williams said in his postgame remarks. “The first 10, 12, 14 minutes, their sense of urgency was greater than ours. They shot 70 percent, got every rebound when they did miss a shot. And so all of a sudden, (we’re trailing by 17).“
Against the Pack (5-1, 1-0 ACC) that lack of urgency led to a lack of detail defensively.
Wolfpack guard Shakeel Moore had made three 3-pointers all season, but drilled three in the first half against No. 17 UNC en route to a season-high 17 points. It was the freshman from Greensboro’s first game in double-figures scoring. But Williams felt that too should not have happened.
“You got to play the screen on the ball the way we practice every day, and we didn’t do that at all,” Williams said. “And then all of a sudden they’re getting open shots. And a guy comes off the bench and he makes one 3, then I’d go out and guard him. So he makes another 3 and then we give him another 3.”
NC State’s Devon Daniels only needed a five-word sentence to sum up what it meant for the Wolfpack to snap its five-game losing streak against rival North Carolina on Tuesday night.
Before Daniels sat down to take part in a postgame Zoom press conference, the redshirt senior yelled out a statement of relief: “We finally got those boys!”
The Wolfpack, which claimed a 79-76 win against the 17th-ranked Tar Heels, knocked off its longtime rival in Raleigh for the first time since 2013.
“I’m so happy,” said Daniels, who scored a game-high 21 points to lead NC State to its first victory against UNC since 2018, head coach Kevin Keatts' first season with the program.
“Just during the game, I could feel the growth with our team. This was a whole team effort. … Even with all the young players, even with some guys sitting out, we came together and got the win. It’s huge.”
No apparent answers on the court or much of an explanation off it for the stumbling beginnings that are plaguing North Carolina.
And the added fuel of its Atlantic Coast Conference basketball opener against a heated rival couldn’t serve as a jump-starter Tuesday night.
The 17th-ranked Tar Heels fell into another deep first-half hole and couldn’t complete the climb against North Carolina State, losing 79-76 in their first league contest of the season at all but empty PNC Arena in Raleigh.
For the sixth time in the last seven games, North Carolina was staring up at a double-digit deficit, with the Wolfpack roaring ahead by 10 during the opening 9½ minutes on the way to building a 17-point lead in the first half.
The Tar Heels tumbled behind by 16 in losses to nationally ranked Iowa and Texas, and needed comebacks to defeat UNLV, North Carolina Central and Kentucky after trailing in similar situations.
• Joe Giglio, WRALSportsFan — Against all odds, NC State thrives in the pandemic
The pandemic brings out the best in NC State.
It was true during the football season and it has spilled over to the basketball season.
The Wolfpack picked up a rare win over Roy Williams and North Carolina on Tuesday night while missing one of its best players and getting a breakout performance from another.
Up is down in 2020 and left is right. If nothing makes sense, then it’s perfectly logical that star-crossed NC State has found a way to thrive in the most difficult of circumstances.
One game a season does not make but like the football team’s win over nemesis Wake Forest in the opener, it can provide confidence and propel a team.
It most definitely can help a team avoid going down a “here we go again” mental drain.
Fifth-year senior Devon Daniels said it all before he sat down for a Zoom conference with the media after the 79-76 win and said: “We finally got those boys!”
• Rachel Bilenki, Technician —Wolfpack hosts holiday ram roast, Moore provides flare off bench
In a dangerously close second half, North Carolina woke up and gave NC State a run for its money, coming within one score multiple times. While every member of Wolfpack nation was sweating, in a rare occurrence, the Pack held onto the lead tight and secured the victory in this big-time matchup.
The Wolfpack was led to victory by senior guard Devon Daniels, with 21 points and five rebounds for the night. Daniels came in clutch in the second half, scoring eight consecutive Pack points to keep the Wolfpack lead alive. At this time, UNC managed to cut a 17-point deficit down to just one.
“It’s been in the past where he can shoot you into games or shoot you out of it,” Keatts said. “I know what type of player I have in him, so I wanted to trust in my older guys... I’m excited about his maturity. That’s one of the things I’m going to take away from this game, that Devon Daniels, I think, took a big step forward as far as a leader today.”
The freshmen Wolfpack ruled the night, knocking down 29 points total, led by freshman guard Shakeel Moore. Moore came off the bench to put up a whopping 17 points, going three for four from the 3-point line, in just 15 minutes of playing time.
“It meant so much to me,” Moore said. “Everybody talks about Carolina. Blue bloods this, and blue bloods that. It just meant a lot for me to be able to come in and handle what I can handle and show coach that he can trust me out there, playing defense and making plays for my team. It was just a big game for me. It felt good. It definitely felt good for me.”
If the Tar Heels hope to become a contender in the ACC, their shooting from beyond the arc simply has to get better. This is especially true when considering their proclivity to fall into early deficits. Entering Tuesday, UNC had faced double-digit deficits in five of its seven games. N.C. State added another tally to that unenviable mark.
The Wolfpack’s final shooting numbers were good, but their start was remarkable. In a fast-paced opening sequence, N.C. State buried UNC under a deficit that reached 17 points at its peak. The Wolfpack went into the locker room with a more modest seven-point advantage, but 6-9 shooting from deep by N.C. State meant the deed was already done.
The Tar Heels had been outshot once again — they finished the game with just two made 3-pointers.
If there’s one thing a post-reliant team doesn’t want to do, it's play out of a deficit against a team hitting consistently from deep. In the closing minute of Tuesday’s loss, a ticking clock and steady five-point hole meant North Carolina needed to hit at least one 3-pointer to force the game into overtime, rendering its post talent void.
• Andrew Jones, Tar Heel Illustrated — Eight games in, the Heels have work to do
North Carolina is nearly one-third through its basketball season, and while they have shown some noteworthy positives, Tuesday night’s loss at NC State underscores just how far away the Tar Heels are from being an average UNC team, which is something they should eventually become.
Should, but the leading indicators don’t suggest that will happen. Of course, that can change, but only if the team does.
Eight games is enough to have a decent handle on this club. They have talent and plenty of guys who can help in a stretch here and there, but other than Armando Bacot this season and Garrison Brooks last season, they don’t have anyone who has ever owned a college court for a lengthy period of time. And that’s a problem that grows as each game passes and nobody else steps up for anything more that a trigger here, a spark there, and so on.
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