NC State snaps three-game losing streak with road win over Miami
After three consecutive ACC losses over the past two weeks, N.C. State was left searching for ways to improve on offense.
The last time N.C. State scored more than 65 points in a game was when it beat Miami 80-63 on Jan. 15 in Raleigh.
On Wednesday night against Miami in Coral Gables, N.C. State (15-8, 6-6 ACC) found that answer — by knocking down 3s.
The Wolfpack made 9 of 22 3-pointers, the majority coming in the first half, and beat Miami at the Watsco Center 83-72.
Senior guard C.J. Bryce led the Wolfpack with 22 points and 11 rebounds. He was 8-for-16 from the floor. Senior Markell Johnson had 19 points and 12 assists, and junior guard Braxton Beverly, who has struggled with back issues this season, had 14 points. He was 4 of 7 from 3.
“It was vintage C.J. Bryce, it was vintage Markell Johnson, it was vintage Braxton Beverly,” N.C. State coach Kevin Keatts said after the game. “I give all of those guys credit. They really responded tonight and made shots.”
The Wolfpack missed 11 of its first 13 shots, and the Hurricanes took an early 11-5 lead with 14:19 remaining in the first half. But after that, the Wolfpack started to get hot.
Devon Daniels and Bryce combined for 32 of the Wolfpack’s 44 points in the first half, and N.C. State led by 12 at halftime. The Wolfpack continued to increase its lead in the second half. It led 63-45 with 12:42 left and looked to have the game in the bag.
But Miami went on a 16-4 run over the next six minutes to cut N.C. State’s lead to three points with a little less than seven minutes left. Keatts said his team started to get stagnant.
But he was glad they responded.
“I found out we’ve got a lot of basketball left in us,” Keatts said. “These guys have got a lot of fight in them. I told them after the game, I said, on every game I’m going to be on high intense, and I’m going to be after it...That’s how I want those guys to respond the remaining amount of games we have in the league.”
Miami had multiple chances to make it even more interesting, but DJ Vasiljevic, who finished with 18 points, missed what would have been a game-tying 3-pointer.
That led to a transition layup by Beverly with 6:21 left. And Miami, which made one of its last eight field goals, never got closer than three points.
N.C. State finished shooting 50 percent from the floor overall and 41 percent from 3. Johnson had a big second half. He scored 16 of his 19 points in the second half and made 7 of 8 free throws, including six in the final minute to ice the game.
“We can be good when we really want to be,” Johnson said. “When we’re locked in defending, I feel like teams should have a long night against us.”
Bryce said the same.
N.C. State will play Syracuse next on Feb. 11.
“We have enough talent, enough will power, a great coach, Coach Keatts,” Bryce said, “if we put it all together, we can make a big run in the conference.”
And one
The Wolfpack entered shooting 31 percent from behind the 3-point line. But N.C .State finished the first half 6 of 12 from behind the 3-point line, after making six of its first nine.
The 3-pointers helped the Wolfpack get back into the game after a slow start.
Lane violation
The Wolfpack allowed what was once an 18-point second-half lead to trickle down to three points. Miami even had two chances to tie the score.
ICYMI
▪ N.C. State sophomore forward Jericole Hellems did not play. He suffered a shoulder injury in practice on Monday, Keatts said. Hellems, who has started in 16 games this season, is averaging 9.4 points per game and 3.5 rebounds.
“He was running through a screen and his shoulder got caught and bent behind,” Keatts said. “We thought he would be available for tonight because we had a couple days for him to kind of nurse it a little bit, but we made the decision earlier today at shootaround that he wasn’t going to be available”
▪ D.J. Funderburk caught what appeared to be an inadvertent elbow to the eye from teammate Manny Bates in the second half. A replay showed Bates was trying to contest a layup by Miami’s Isaiah Wong when he hit Funderburk on the way up. Funderburk did not return.
“He’s fine,” Keatts said of Funderburk. “I don’t have what his injury was, but I do know during the game he got hit pretty hard, so we decided not to go with him.”
▪ Miami was also down a few players. Junior Chris Lykes missed his third consecutive game with a groin injury.
Making sense of the numbers
17: Turnovers by N.C. State allowed Miami to get back into the game. Some of the turnovers were preventable, the result of silly passes and too much dribbling.
5: The number of players who scored in double figures for the Wolfpack. It was a group effort led by Bryce.
6: Late in the first half, Miami’s Sam Waardenburg was called for a personal foul, then a technical foul for arguing a call, and Miami’s bench was called for a technical foul, too, all in the same sequence. That led to six consecutive free throws for N.C. State. The Wolfpack made four of those six free throws to go up 14 points.
This story was originally published February 5, 2020 at 10:42 PM.
