NC State falls at Virginia Tech
At least N.C. State scored more than 24 points.
The Wolfpack still can’t beat Virginia Tech but Saturday’s road loss wasn’t in historic fashion. Landers Nolley scored 29 points to lead the upstart Hokies to a 72-58 win over the Wolfpack.
N.C. State (11-5, 2-3 ACC) was limited to 24 points, a low for any ACC game in the shot-clock era (since the 1985-86 season), in last year’s loss in Raleigh.
Third-year Wolfpack coach Kevin Keatts is winless in three games against the Hokies (12-4, 3-2).
Less-than-nothing was expected of the Hokies in coach Mike Young’s first season but the Hokies have played hard and loose. It helps they have a verifiable star in Nolley. Nolley made four 3-pointers and went 9 of 10 from the foul line. He also added seven rebounds.
“He’s a great scorer, a prolific scorer,” N.C. State forward D.J. Funderburk said of Nolley. “We tried everything we could.”
The Wolfpack, with six of its top seven scores back from last year, came into the season with hopes of a top-4 finish in the league. It’s not even Super Bowl Sunday but those hopes are quickly slipping away.
With C.J. Bryce sidelined with a concussion, the Wolfpack hasn’t been able to piece together consecutive ACC wins. Bryce, who leads the team in scoring and rebounding, missed his fourth straight game. Bryce practiced on Friday and went through an extensive warmup in the pre-game on Saturday, but hasn’t cleared the concussion protocol.
“He went through practice yesterday and then felt good,” Keatts said. “He didn’t feel so great last night and so obviously the doctors decided to shut him down.”
N.C. State got 18 points from Funderburk but like last year’s 47-24 home loss to the Hokies, struggled from the 3-point line.
Senior guard Markell Johnson was 1 of 7 and N.C. State’s 3-point specialists, Braxton Beverly and Pat Andree, combined to go 3 of 12. As a team, N.C. State went 6 of 30 from the 3-point line.
“If we’re making six 3-pointers and taking 30, that’s not a good formula for us to be successful,” Keatts said.
Freshman guard Tyrece Radford backed up Nolley’s scoring output with 18 points and had a team-best nine rebounds.
The smaller Hokies were able to play the bigger Wolfpack to near draw in rebounding (41-39 edge for N.C. State).
And one
Johnson had nine assists for the fifth time this season. N.C. State has a 3-2 record in those games.
Lane Violation
Johnson had five turnovers for the fourth times this season. N.C. State has a 1-3 record in those games.
ICYMI
N.C. State has lost its past three trips to Cassell Coliseum. Its last road win over the Hokies was in Feb. 2014, when current assistant coach James Johnson was in charge of the Hokies.
Making sense of the numbers
0-6 Keatts has been unable to win an ACC game, including the tournament, against the two teams from his home state.
10 N.C. State scored the first 10 points of the game. Once the Hokies scratched at 16:06 in the first half, they were able to find a scoring groove. Troubling for the Wolfpack, that means it was out-scored 72-48 over the final 36 minutes of the game.
This story was originally published January 11, 2020 at 3:58 PM.
