Here are some the thoughts from those who covered NC State Wolfpack basketball's 65-61 loss to Colorado State in the NIT on Thursday evening.
A sour yet fitting conclusion to the season, the Pack was so shorthanded that it had to play walk-on sophomore guard Max Farthing for six minutes in the first half.
All three of NC State’s veteran guards were unavailable due to injury.
Fifth-year senior guard Devon Daniels (ACL) and redshirt junior guard Thomas Allen (ankle) were already known scratches after suffering season-ending injuries in January and February.
The Pack’s third veteran member of the backcourt, senior guard Braxton Beverly, was deemed unavailable an hour before tipoff due to a surprise injury. Beverly, who had scored eight or more points in five of his last seven games, suffered a concussion after catching an accidental elbow in a morning shootaround Thursday according to NC State SID Craig Hammel after the game.
“I feel really bad for our seniors, especially Braxton Beverly, who couldn't play in the game,” Wolfpack head coach Kevin Keatts said. “I told those guys in the locker room that I love everybody for their fight. There wasn't one day, one practice, that I didn't think our guys competed. I've always said to my guys, 'If you play extremely hard, I'll live with the results.'
“The results were we came up a little bit short, but that doesn't define what type of year that we had. I’m proud of our fight.”
• Matt Carter, TheWolfpacker.com — Quick hits from NC State's loss to Colorado State
Colorado State made just 3 of 23 three-pointers in the game. Only twice did a team make fewer threes in a game on the Pack this year: Campbell on Dec. 19 and UNC three days later, both NC State wins. Only Campbell's 11.8 percent accuracy beyond the arc (2 of 17) was worse than what Colorado State did (13.0 percent).
So how did CSU emerge victorious? It made 23 of 36 shots from inside the arc, or 63.9 percent.
In the second half, they collectively shot 16 of 22 on non-three-pointers, or 72.7 percent. For a better, simpler way of looking at it, Colorado State made almost three out of every four shots they attempted from two-point territory after halftime.
For good measure, Colorado State made 10 of 11 free throws, too.
Somehow, someway, N.C. State had a chance.
Despite playing a poor second half against Colorado State in the NIT quarterfinal, the Wolfpack found itself with the ball, down two with 22.6 seconds left.
It got a clean look from the top of the key, a 3-pointer off the curl from Jericole Hellems. The shot bounced off the rim and so ended N.C. State’s season, a 65-61 loss to the Rams on Thursday night.
The Rams (20-6) closed the game out at the foul line, getting two big free throws from Kendle Moore.
N.C. State ended the year at 14-11 and missed out on a chance to rally against Colorado State despite struggling most of the night.
“Hats go off to Colorado State,” N.C. State head coach Kevin Keatts said. “I thought they played well. They made some plays down the stretch. I feel bad for our seniors, but at the end of the day I told those guys I love everybody for their fight.”
Hellems and Shakeel Moore scored six straight for N.C. State to make it a four-point CSU lead with 4:22 remaining. Cam Hayes hit four free throws and Hellems hit a 3 from the corner to make it a two-point CSU lead. But the Rams answered with a turnaround jumper from David Roddy with 1:17 left in the game.
Hayes hit three straight foul shots to pull within three with 3:27 remaining. But Manny Bates was called for goaltending on the other end, extending the Rams’ lead to five.
• Ben Ellis, Technician — NC State men’s basketball’s season ends with loss to Colorado State in NIT
Without its entire group of veteran backcourt players, the Pack made it a point of emphasis to attack the paint early in the game, and it did so through redshirt senior forward D.J. Funderburk, who scored the game’s first seven points and the first nine for the Pack. Funderburk had another bucket just before the 10-minute mark of the first half to give him 11 points in the half.
The Pack jumped out to a 9-3 lead to begin the game, but that was as big as the lead would get the rest of the night as the Rams went on a 9-2 run to take the lead. The Pack quickly regained the lead and had a 28-25 advantage at the end of what was a poor shooting first half as both teams combined to shoot 3-25 from beyond the arc.
A 3-pointer that was somehow banked in from the corner by junior forward Jericole Hellems to begin the second half stretched the lead back to six. However, the Rams inched closer over the next few minutes and took the lead 38-35 with 15:20 left. The two teams went back and forth over the next couple of minutes, as there were four lead changes before the Rams went on a 6-0 run to take a 46-41 lead with 10:43 left.
The margin got as slim as one and as wide as eight over the next few minutes, but with 22 seconds left, the Pack found itself down two with possession of the ball. The ensuing in-bounds play led to a missed 3-point attempt by Hellems and a rebound by the Rams, who knocked down a pair of free throws with six seconds left to seal the game and end the Pack’s season.
After a dominant start to the game, Funderburk was not nearly as effective over the last 30 minutes of the game and scored just one bucket in the second half while dealing with foul trouble to finish with 13 points.
“I think [Colorado State] made adjustments,” Keatts said. “Without Braxton Beverly being out there, we lost a shooter, and so it’s easy just to sag off some of those guys who don’t shoot the ball as well. [Colorado State] packed the paint a little bit more in the second half… I thought we had some bad turnovers trying to force the ball in.”
The Rams hit just 28% of their shots and were a putrid 1-15 from 3-point range in the first half. There was good news, though, since CSU only trailed by three at the break.
And that made it feel like a win. The Rams were disjointed on both ends early, with N.C. State going up 7-0 early on easy looks. After 5 minutes, it felt like a 15-point hole, but it was actually about half that.
The Rams never found their offense in the first half. But at halftime, CSU coach Niko Medved was able to point at the scoreboard and say, basically, 'it’s all good.'
"What I tried to tell our guys at halftime was 'listen guys, look at where we are. We're one of 15 from 3,' " Medved said.
"I don't want to say our energy was bad, I thought we were a little bit of hanging our heads like 'are you kidding me?' I just said 'hey, we're right here. We're right where we want to be. We're going to play a lot better in the second half.' "
Can playing poorly give you energy? Kind of. The Rams came out of halftime energized because, after all, there’s no way that was going to happen again.
CSU used an early 7-0 run to take the lead. That advantage never grew larger than eight (55-47) but CSU felt more in control throughout the second half.
It didn’t hurt that the 25% capacity crowd allowed in the Comerica Center heavily favored the Rams.
N.C. State may be the more physically gifted in terms of length and athleticism, but the Rams played sounder basketball.
The Wolfpack turned it over 17 times and led to 15 CSU points, while the Rams had a reasonable 10 turnovers despite struggling in that area all season.
"It began on the defensive end," Roddy said. "That's kind of what sparked us and we fed off that energy."
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