Here are some the thoughts from those who covered NC State Wolfpack basketball's 65-62 win over Pittsburgh Sunday.
The Wolfpack (12-9, 8-8 ACC) was held to a field goal average of 39 percent, which marked the third time this season the Pack shot 40 percent or less from the field in a single contest.
The other instances, against Saint Louis and Miami, resulted in losses. But this time, NC State found a way to pull out a much-needed victory over the Panthers (9-10, 5-9 ACC).
“We wouldn't have won this game a month ago,” Wolfpack head coach Kevin Keatts said. “Every team that you play in this league is going to present a different problem. I thought those guys did a good job of fighting. They got a lot of second-chance opportunities. They play with some toughness.
“It was good to see our guys figure out a way to win, figure out how to make some shots at the end, figure out how not to turn the ball over.”
All four of the Pack’s upperclassmen that played Sunday finished in double figures.
Junior forward Jericole Hellems has a team-high 15 points on 5-of-13 shooting, including a 2-of-4 mark from the three-point line. He also led the team with 10 rebounds and five assists.
Although both got into early foul trouble, fifth-year senior forward DJ Funderburk and redshirt sophomore center Manny Bates scored a combined 23 points.
Funderburk finished with 13 points on 4-of-7 shooting and added three rebounds in 23 minutes.
Bates produced 10 points also on 4-of-7 shooting, along with six blocks and three rebounds.
For the fifth-consecutive game, senior guard Braxton Beverly came off of the bench for the Wolfpack.
Beverly joined his fellow upperclassmen teammates Sunday, providing just enough scoring production to help the Pack come away with the win.
Beverly finished with 14 points on 2-of-5 shooting, most notably a 2-of-4 mark from the perimeter. He also added two rebounds and one assist in 27 minutes, his most time on the floor since the home loss to Syracuse on Feb. 9.
• Matt Carter, TheWolfpacker.com — Quick hits from NC State's win over Pittsburgh
There was a bit more energy in the arena on Sunday, as a few more fans were allowed into the arena to watch the game. They even brought out the cheerleaders for the first time in hoops, and band music was piped in over the loudspeakers.
It was not near a normal atmosphere, but it felt significantly closer than what it was before.
Also spotted was a rare sighting of freshmen center Ebenezer Dowuona. Due to both Funderburk and Bates getting two first half fouls, Dowuona played the final six minutes of the first half. For some perspective, Dowuona has only played in three games during ACC play, all lopsided affairs.
He played three minutes at Florida State, seven at Boston College and two at Wake Forest. It was the first time he stepped on the floor at PNC Arena in his career. All his prior action in non-conference play came at Reynolds Coliseum or in Connecticut.
Dowuona finished with two points, two rebounds and a blocked shot with two fouls.
N.C. State and Pittsburgh went down to the wire when the teams met earlier this month. Why would anyone expect the rematch to be any different?
Meeting for the second time in 11 days, the Wolfpack (12-9, 8-8) and Panthers gave the 500 fans inside PNC Arena their money’s worth. It was N.C. State being money from the line and on defense when it counted the most that led to the 65-62 win.
“It was great,” Braxton Beverly said about playing in front of fans for the first time. “It felt so loud. That gave us a little edge.”
Despite not being able to hit the broadside of a barn from the field, N.C. State got enough timely field goals from D.J. Funderburk and blocks on defense from Manny Bates, the two bigs who missed most of the first half in foul trouble.
With the Panthers closing in on the lead, Bates had blocks on consecutive possessions to turn away Pittsburgh. The Panthers (9-10, 5-9) pulled to within three, 56-53, after a layup from Terrell Brown, but went without a field goal for the next five minutes.
N.C. State, who had their own struggles shooting, got a layup from Jericole Hellems and another from Bates to push the lead to five.
“It was a grind it out game,” Pack head coach Kevin Keatts said. “I think we are getting better defensively.”
On a day when not a lot was going well offensively (a season-low 18 field goals), N.C. State had to find other ways to get it done. That meant hitting more free throws (24) than shots from the field. That meant locking down defensively (six blocks from Manny Bates) and forcing turnovers (14).
It meant on a day when the shots were at a premium, the upperclassmen — Braxton Beverly, D.J. Funderburk, Jericole Hellems — had to take over the game from the freshmen who were suddenly finding their way the last few weeks. Beverly, Funderburk and Hellems, along with the sophomore Bates, combined for 52 points, leading the charge.
Fifteen days after their most embarrassing ACC performance of the season, a 16-point home loss to Duke, the Pack are now winners of four in a row for the first time since 2018. The team has climbed to above .500 in the league play and, with two games remaining, could possibly play themselves into the postseason. This was a win that wasn’t pretty to watch, but the kind of win teams need under their belt heading into March. Keatts knows this was a sign of growth of just how far his team has come.
“We wouldn’t have won this game a month ago,” Keatts said.
When pressed as to why this team looks different, Keatts said it comes down to his guys being confident and believing they can win this kind of game.
• Ben Ellis, Technician — NC State men’s basketball survives Pitt 65-62 for fourth straight win
The Wolfpack (12-9, 8-8 ACC) built a 10-point halftime lead and led by as many as 14 in the second half before the Panthers (9-10, 5-9 ACC) crept back and made it a tight game, but NC State was able to pull it out for the program’s 12th straight win over Pitt.
“What a good, grind-it-out game,” said head coach Kevin Keatts. “I told our guys that you’re going to have to figure out how to win every kind of game. Some games you could be up big, some games you might be down. I thought that was a great test for us because it was back and forth.”
After a back-and-forth opening few minutes, NC State went on a 14-3 run between the 11-minute mark and the four-minute mark in the first half to take a 26-14 lead before taking a 31-21 lead into halftime. It wasn’t a pretty half for either team, but the NC State defense was the difference as it held Pitt to just 23.3% from the field.
After Pitt cut the lead to four in the opening minutes of the second half, the Pack went on a 12-2 run to take a 45-31 lead, which ended up being the largest lead of the game. Senior guard Braxton Beverly played a key role in the run as he scored seven points, including two 3-pointers.
“I think we’re definitely playing really confident basketball,” Beverly said. “It’s really coming from practice… We’re getting in the gym, we’re working, we’re encouraging each other, we’re going hard every day, and it’s starting to show.”
Jeff Capel sat on the question for a bit — six seconds, to be exact — as he gathered his thoughts.
After a trying, tumultuous week in which his Pitt team saw two of its top three scorers enter the transfer portal, it fell Sunday to N.C. State, 65-62, in its first game since those exits. It was an encouraging performance, to be sure, even with all of the pain that comes with a loss.
But without junior standouts Xavier Johnson and Au’Diese Toney, two players who had been pillars of the program from the moment they became a part of it, what felt different about his group of players?
“I’m not sure much has been different,” Capel said.
As the Panthers entered that matchup with the Wolfpack at PNC Arena, the first of three contests to conclude the regular season, a question surrounded it, making this game one of their more intriguing in Capel’s time as coach.
Could Pitt rise about the turmoil and show that, maybe, it was better for everything that had transpired, unsettling as it may seem from the outside? Or would it have the look of an undermanned, beleaguered program that looked aimless without two players on whom it had leaned so much not just this season, but throughout Capel’s tenure?
The answer was something in the middle of those outcomes. In many ways, Pitt was both, looking like the latter in the first half and the former in the second. When put together, it was a one-possession loss against a streaking team that, at one point, looked as though it may run the Panthers (9-10, 5-9 ACC) out of the gym.
• Chris Peak, Panther-lair.com— Pitt loses by three in first game after transfers
In Pitt’s first game without Xavier Johnson and Au’Diese Toney, the Panthers struggled, found their rhythm and gave N.C. State a battle on the Wolfpack’s home court.
But as has been the case for the bulk of the ACC schedule this season, Pitt couldn’t overcome its tough stretches and the Panthers lost to N.C. State 65-62.
The loss was Pitt’s eighth in the last nine games, dropping the Panthers’ record to 9-10 overall and 5-9 in the conference, and it came a few days after the team had to endure monumental transfers in back-to-back days this past week. In losing Johnson and Toney, Pitt found itself staring down the final three regular-season games missing two starters who were two of the team’s three leading scorers.
To replace Johnson at point guard, Pitt coach Jeff Capel started Femi Odukale. Making his third start of the season, the freshman scored a career-high 18 points while playing a career-high 38 minutes. He also had five rebounds, five assists and just one turnover.
At the small forward spot vacated by Toney, Capel opted to roll with a three-guard lineup, starting senior Nike Sibande. That was Sibande’s fifth start on the season and the third consecutive game he has started. He scored nine points on 3-of-9 shooting and played a season-high 38 minutes.
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