NC State basketball loses to UNC by double digits again, drops 5th home game in a row
Kevin Keatts wanted to send his seniors off the right way.
The crowd showed up — the best at PNC this season. The energy in the building was at an all-time high.
But by the time the clock hit zero, it was more of the same. Those same fans that filled PNC Arena early didn’t all stick around to watch the end. N.C. State didn’t have enough horses in the stable to keep up with North Carolina, falling 84-74.
Those seniors — Jericole Hellems and Thomas Allen — will end their careers with a fifth straight loss at home. The Wolfpack (11-18, 4-14) won just one conference game in front of its home fans. Coming into Saturday, N.C. State was 6-1 against the Tar Heels (21-8, 13-5) on Senior Day. Keatts is now 2-8 against UNC, including a 1-4 record at PNC.
This time around the combination of Armando Bacot and Brady Manek, and a spark off the bench by Puff Johnson, made sure it wasn’t a happy ending for State fans.
Bacot scored 28 points on 11-of-13 shooting and pulled down 18 rebounds. Manek finished with 16 and Johnson scored a career-high 16 off the bench.
“When you look at the difference in the game, we had no answer for Armando Bacot,” Keatts said. “He was great. I thought we did a good job on the other guys, but when he (Bacot) has 28 and 18 and five blocks, I don’t know how we can win a game that way.”
Keatts went to a zone defense when Ebenezer Dowuona went to the bench with four fouls at the 18:11 mark. Johnson busted the zone with consecutive corner 3s. Those appeared to be the final nails in the coffin, a coffin that was lowered into the ground a long time ago. Those 3s by Johnson pulled Keatts out of that zone faster than he liked.
“We tried different stuff,” Keatts said.
N.C. State clawed and scratched just to get within 13 in the first half. A 2:06 scoring drought by Carolina helped the Wolfpack get back into the game.
Hellems scored five straight to make it 30-17, but UNC countered by going back to its bread and butter. Bacot scored on a dunk and R.J. Davis followed with a layup. Manek knocked down a 3 and Puff Johnson hit three from the line after drawing a foul.
In the blink of an eye, the Tar Heels took back what little momentum N.C. State had going for it.
At the tip, PNC was buzzing. It didn’t last long. UNC quickly went ahead by double-digits, jumping out to a 20-5 lead in the first eight minutes.
N.C. State trailed by 17 at the break, which actually didn’t feel that bad compared to the 25-point deficit the last time the two teams played. The Wolfpack got to as close as 11 in the second half, but stalled after a pair of free throws from freshman Terquavion Smith.
Smith, who had a career high (34 points) in the first meeting, finished with 20 this time around. Cam Hayes had one of his best games of the season with 16 points, but N.C. State got too little, too late from Dereon Seabron. After a season-low two points in the first meeting, he had 11 this time, only three in the first half, though. Hellems finished with 11 in what was more than likely his last game at PNC. He could take advantage of an additional year thanks to COVID-19.
“When Jericole, Terquavion and Dereon don’t play well, we don’t put ourselves in a position to win,” Keatts said. “Even when other guys have good nights.”
The trio went a combined 15-46 from the floor against UNC.
“I thought we left some easy baskets on the rim,” Keatts said. “We had some shots that, early on, would have been a different outcome if we made them. We drove them and didn’t finish around the basket.”
NO SLEEP TILL BROOKLYN
The Wolfpack dropped to 7-10 at home. Six of those wins were during the non-conference stretch of the year. With two games remaining — at Wake Forest on Wednesday, at Florida State one week from Saturday — the Pack is currently ahead of only Georgia Tech in the ACC standings. The bright side for the Pack is that it has played better on the road.
“If I knew it,” Keatts said before his voice started to trail off. “If you look back the last couple of years, man, we’ve probably had more road wins than anybody in the entire conference. We finished last year with five straight road wins. I tried to figure out how to simulate being on the road at home and that hadn’t worked.”
The goal now is to build momentum in Winston-Salem and Tallahassee ahead of the ACC Tournament in Brooklyn.
“With the type of team we have, we’re never going to hang our head over loses,” Seabron said. “I feel like we’re going to always play hard and try to get these last two wins. It’s good to start well at the end of the season heading into the ACC Tournament.”
Keatts has talked to his team about being one of those teams nobody wants to play because they “have nothing to lose.”
“We’re that team,” Keatts said. “We’re going to finish this last week of the regular season and we’re going to go into Brooklyn and see what can happen.”
This story was originally published February 26, 2022 at 4:10 PM.
