Kevin Keatts can’t blame NC State’s effort after COVID pause for stinging loss at UNC
After watching Manny Bates in practice Friday, testing out a tender ankle, N.C. State coach Kevin Keatts sensed the big man would play Saturday against North Carolina.
But play 30 minutes, against UNC bigs Armando Bacot and Day’Ron Sharpe? Scoring 10 points and blocking seven shots?
Keatts also sensed senior guard Braxton Beverly, always the silent one when it comes to injuries, would play better after seeing him in practice and might have his old “mojo,” as the coach said Friday.
But 12 points, four assists and five steals? Keatts wasn’t sure Beverly would give him that.
Not that it was enough. The Tar Heels won 86-76 at the Smith Center. Bacot and Sharpe did their damage inside, combining for 33 points, as UNC handed the Wolfpack its fourth straight loss in 2021.
But there were enough positives for Keatts to bank on after a game that was anything but like the last one for the Pack — the ugly 105-73 beating at Florida State on Jan. 13. The Wolfpack weathered its second COVID-19 pause to the season, had a chance Saturday despite being off 10 days and should have a full complement of players in practice moving forward.
“I told my guys in the locker room, man, you’re playing hard and you’re competing,” Keatts said on his postgame media call. “This will be, whenever we get back in practice, this will be the first time in probably 15 or 16 days we have had our entire team in there.
“Everybody has got to get on the same page, everybody has to continue to work. We’ve got to get back in shape and figure everything out.”
It was a six-point game Saturday with 3:53 left in regulation after a 3-pointer from Devon Daniels, who had a game-high 21 points. D.J. Funderburk, invisible in the first half but more forceful in the second in scoring 14 points, challenged a shot by Caleb Love in the lane and got a piece of the ball.
Funderburk was called for a foul, a toot of the whistle he did not like. Love hit two free throws, and after Beverly missed a shot, UNC’s Anthony Harris followed up a missed 3 by Love to push the lead back to 10. For UNC, the crisis point had passed.
“I thought our guys fought hard,” Keatts said. “I thought we played a really hard, inspired game. I thought the difference in the game probably was the last three or four minutes of the first half. It kind of got away from us a little bit.”
After a Beverly 3-pointer pulled the Pack within 33-31 with four minutes left in the first half, Sharpe scored eight points in a 10-2 UNC run. The Pack missed three shots and had two turnovers on its last six possessions, scoring on a Bates dunk.
In December, when the Pack beat UNC 79-76 at PNC Arena, it was freshman Shakeel Moore’s baseline drive and high-rise dunk that was the signature moment in the win. But Moore, who had 17 points in that game, played just four minutes and did not score Saturday after what Keatts said was a poor week of practice.
Nor was Cam Hayes a factor. The freshman guard had 16 minutes of playing time Saturday that were mostly indifferent.
Figure things out? Moore and Hayes are trying to do just that, and in a season made so unpredictable during the pandemic.
“For the freshmen, in their first year playing in the ACC, in an empty gym, it’s like playing pickup on a Saturday morning. It’s different,” Beverly said on the media call.
What now for the Pack? N.C. State is 2-4 in the ACC after the 2-0 start and 6-5 overall.
The defense needs to be tighter and the focus better. Funderburk needs to be a more consistent presence on both ends of the court. Moore and Hayes, both talented, need to stay patient, earn their playing time and make the most of it.
“We’ve got to start making a change now,” Daniels said. “We don’t want to be a team that gets used to losing, like, OK, we’re going to go out and play basketball and play hard and if we lose, whatever. We’re a better team than that.
“We’ve got to do everything with more enthusiasm, with more passion, and I feel like we can.”
The big unknown: Will there be more COVID issues? No one can say. But the season moves on.
“We feel like we’re right there with anybody when we come to play,” Beverly said. “But we’ve had COVID layoffs, had injuries. It’s tough and it’s aggravating. The best thing for us is to stay the course.”
This story was originally published January 23, 2021 at 6:26 PM.
