NC State stumbles out of the gate in ACC basketball play, falling to Pittsburgh, 68-60
After one of the worst shooting nights of his college career, Jarkel Joiner preferred to be upbeat and positive, not pout.
The N.C. State point guard had just missed all 12 of his shots Friday in the Wolfpack’s 68-60 loss to Pittsburgh in the ACC opener at PNC Arena. He also had five of Pack’s 12 turnovers.
But Joiner wasn’t hiding from anyone in the locker room after the game. Nor was he dodging the fact that he could have been better, both with the ball and in defending it.
“We can’t let our shots affect us on the defensive end,” Joiner said. “They’re going to be more nights like that, when our shots don’t fall. But we’re a veteran group and we should know that.
“We got our shots. They just didn’t fall. It was one of those nights.”
Joiner is a graduate student, a transfer from Ole Miss. Jack Clark, who missed his eight shots and scored two points, is a graduate transfer from LaSalle. The Pack (7-2, 0-1 ACC) also has older players in senior Casey Morsell and graduate center D.J. Burns Jr., who did play hard and well.
All have had tough nights before in college — albeit most at other schools — and rebounded from them. All know how. It’s a matter of doing it.
But losing the ACC opener, at home, stung. There was no denying it.
“It was one of those gritty games where you’ve got to figure out how to win the game, especially when the ball isn’t going in,” NCSU coach Kevin Keatts said. “When you look at our team, what’s made us special this year is we’ve been consistent in having at least four guys in double figures and tonight we didn’t have that. A couple of our guys never got into a flow.
“It was a weird night for us offensively. We weren’t clicking as I hope we will be.”
The start of ACC play offered an interesting matchup of two teams that retooled their rosters through the NCAA transfer portal. This night, the Panthers’ defense was the difference in what Keatts called a “slugfest.”
Jamarius Burton, a Charlotte native and 2021 Texas Tech transfer, had a game-high 24 points. Blake Hinson, brought in from Iowa State, had 13 points and eight rebounds and Greg Elliott, from Marquette, had nine rebounds and hit some big shots.
But it was defense that did for the Panthers (6-3, 1-0), who came to Raleigh off an impressive win at Northwestern in the ACC/Big Ten Challenge. The Pack never got into a good offensive groove, missing key shots at key junctures of the second half or turning the ball over and shot a season-low 35% from the field.
Terquavion Smith knocked down a couple of early 3s — one from almost 25 feet — and finished with 15 points, but on 5-for-13 shooting. Burns used his bulk well and battled Panthers big man John Hugley and 6-11 Fede Federiko inside, in scoring 13 points.
“To defend the way we did and play with the toughness and togetherness that we had for 40 minutes … I’m really proud of the effort,” Pitt coach Jeff Capel said. “N.C. State coming in, they played the fastest pace in the league, averaging 83 points a game, and I thought our defense was outstanding throughout. We played really hard and made things difficult for them.”
The Pack shot 29.4% from the field in the opening half but worked hard on the defensive boards — Pitt had four offensive rebounds in the game — in trailing 33-28 at the break.
Pitt, more patient in its offensive sets, pushed out to a 12-point lead in the second half. A 3-pointer by LJ Thomas pulled the Pack within 59-53 with 6:25 to play, but Burton hit a jumper and then a layup as the Panthers added to the lead.
Turnovers then hurt the Pack. So did some bad shots on open looks.
“It’s simple. We didn’t guard and we didn’t hit shots,” said Morsell, who had nine points. “We’re a team where our defense impacts our offense. We know what we have to do — defense first. We have to be defensive-minded and we weren’t tonight.”
The Wolfpack hosts Coppin State on Tuesday in its annual Heritage Game at Reynolds Coliseum, then goes to Miami on Saturday for its second ACC game.
“We’ve got to flush it, what we did offensively,” Keatts said. “We’ve got to figure out how to get better defensively and then get back and work.”
This story was originally published December 2, 2022 at 9:07 PM.
