DJ Horne’s red-hot shooting propels NC State over winless Detroit Mercy
NC State guard DJ Horne rose up to launch a 3-pointer from the right wing in the second half, and as it reached the rim, the ball rolled all the way around the rim and fell in the cup. As he ran back on defense, Horne’ looked down at his hands and counted to six.
It was one of those days for Horne, who tied his career best with six made 3-pointers against Detroit Mercy. He led the Pack to an 83-66 win over the Titans on Saturday afternoon at PNC Arena.
Horne scored a season-best 26 points against Detroit Mercy, and 20 of those points came in the opening 20 minutes. The Cary native hit four triples in the opening half, which helped NC State shake yet another slow start.
“Just trying to stay confident in my game,” Horne said. “And just knowing that we got out to a slow start, I tried to give my team a spark.”
Horne did give the team a spark and he continued on his torrid shooting stretch. He has now hit 20 3-pointers in the last four games on a nearly 60% clip from beyond the arc.
Without Horne’s hot shooting in the picture, NC State’s offense struggled at times in the first half. The Pack only got 23 points from the nine other players that saw the floor in the first half.
Some of that might have been with the Christmas break on the horizon, but luckily for NC State, Horne is a local kid.
“The Dec. 23 game is probably one of the toughest games you’re going to play in non-conference because half of the guys are already at home [mentally,]” NC State coach Kevin Keatts said. “Fortunately for us, DJ Horne already lives in Raleigh. He was the only one that was comfortable because he’s only got to drive five minutes to get to his house.”
While Horne found his stride early, it took a second for the rest of the Wolfpack offense to click. NC State fell behind 9-2 in the first three minutes, which forced an early timeout from Keatts. After the break, NC State used four substitutions — guards Michael O’Connell, MJ Rice and Kam Woods, and forward Ben Middlebrooks — to find a spark.
It worked.
NC State went on an 11-0 run to grab an 18-12 lead and the Pack was able to keep the Titans at an arm’s length for the rest of the first half.
“I thought the guys on the bench were completely the reason why we got going,” Keatts said. “We made a couple substitutions, I thought our energy went to another level. … I needed energy. I thought the guys that started the game didn’t come out with great energy.”
NC State was able to pull away in the second half with a 40-point final 20 minutes to run away from Detroit Mercy, a team that has yet to win a game this season.
While Horne had a game-best 26 points, NC State was balanced on the rest of the court. Middlebrooks had 11 points, while graduate forward DJ Burns had 10 points and freshman guard Dennis Parker Jr. chipped in with 10 points and seven rebounds.
Though the Pack won its ninth game of the non-conference slate, and it now has nearly two weeks until its next game — at Notre Dame on Jan. 3 — graduate guard Casey Morsell thought it could have been a better showing from NC State.
“We were solid later on,” Morsell said. “We should have played a lot better.”
NC State has time to work on themselves after they return from the Christmas break on Dec. 27 in what is expected to be practices that work on the team’s chemistry with Rice and Woods’ additions to the usual rotation.
