NC State basketball beats Georgia Tech at home. 3 takeaways from the Wolfpack’s win
Midway through the second half Saturday, N.C. State and Georgia Tech were caught up in a hard-fought game at PNC Arena.
Wolfpack guard Michael O’Connell was guarding Tech’s Kyle Sturdivant, who was about to take a handoff from Tyzhaun Claude when O’Connell squeezed between them and snatched the ball away from Claude in a basketball wrestling match.
Claude, as if taken by surprise, could only turn and latch on to O’Connell, fouling to prevent a fast-break score.
In a way, it was a play symbolic of the Pack’s 82-76 victory over the Yellow Jackets in a game when things were not always smooth and N.C. State had to tough it out.
“I’m very proud of our guys and our fight,” Wolfpack coach Kevin Keatts said, again saying what has become a Wolfpack mantra this season.
D.J. Horne had 26 points, Jayden Taylor 21 and Casey Morsell 15 for the Wolfpack (15-7, 7-4 ACC). But this was a team victory in many ways -- witness O’Connell’s aggressive steal and his team-high six assists.
“Mike’s the glue piece for our team” Horne said of O’Connell. “He knows what it takes to win and does all the little things it takes to win.”
It became clear in the second half that it was a test of wills, of basketball moxie. Neither team was very sharp. The play was sloppy at times.
But the Wolfpack, looking again to protect its homecourt after beating Miami, took this one away from the Yellow Jackets (10-12, 3-8), much like O’Connell swiped the ball from Claude.
Horne hit some timely jumpers in the second half. Taylor did the same. O’Connell worked hard on both ends of the court. Everyone contributed for the Wolfpack.
Georgia Tech came to Raleigh off its biggest win of Damon Stoudamire’s first season as coach — the 74-73 upset of No. 3 North Carolina in Atlanta earlier in the week. The Jackets faced a Wolfpack team that had ended a three-game ACC losing streak by beating Miami at home and wanted more.
Three takeaways from the game:
Closing it out
Closing out games can be the hardest part. It usually is in the ACC.
The Pack led 62-48 in the second half as the PNC Arena crowd, again lively, let out some howls. With two minutes left in regulation, the lead was 71-65, Pack, and work still to be done.
But Horne made a pair of free throws to ease the tension. Tech’s Naithan George missed a jumper, Mo Diarra rebounded for the Pack and soon Horne was back at the line to make two foul shots for a 75-65 lead.
The Jackets made it a 76-70 game on a 3-pointer by Miles Kelly with 45 seconds remaining. O’Connell, fouled in the backcourt, made two more at the line.
Surviving the droughts
The Pack runs hot and cold with the ball. A continuing trend in some games is going four or so minutes without a basket. Taking shots, yes. Makes, no.
Keatts says he give his players the freedom to take shots but still has some players often taking bad ones. It’s a hit-and-miss game, as Keatts likes to say. Shooting 30% in a half means 70% were misses.
Taylor had both a hit and a miss -- and a play that was No. 1 on the ESPN SportsCenter Top 10. He put up a wild shot on a baseline move and fell to the floor. But while on his back, he reached out his right arm to keep the ball from going out of bounds and shoved a pass to O’Connell for a 3.
The Pack had a 29-18 lead in the opening half, only to be outscored 18-6 in the last seven minutes of the half as Georgia Tech used an 11-0 run to tie it. The Jackets hit five of their last six shots of the half while the Pack was missing six of its last seven as Georgia Tech took a 36-35 halftime lead.
“I know we had a little lull,” Horne said. “Those moments are what we’re still trying to figure out how to cut out, because we know we can’t have those against really good teams.”
Fun on the road for Jackets?
Georgia Tech’s Stoudamire says he always liked road games as a player and now a coach, calling them fun and saying it’s good for a team to get out of its comfort zone.
“On the road it’s just you and your guys,” the first-year coach said this week.
The Yellow Jackets had a lot of fun in winning at Clemson, emerging from that double overtime thriller with a 93-90 win. The Jackets made 15 of their 3-point shots in that game, 14 in regulation as they rallied from nine points down in the final 1:43 to force the OT.
Their most recent road game was anything but fun: a 91-67 blasting at Virginia Tech. Tech had a 1-5 road record before Saturday.
But the Yellow Jackets carried over some of their mojo from beating UNC. They trailed by as many as 11 points in the first half and appeared a little disjointed but regrouped to take the lead and had some real energy on their bench.
Tech fell behind 62-48 in the second half but made the Pack work hard in the final few minutes to finish it out.
This story was originally published February 3, 2024 at 7:59 PM.
