NC State basketball quick hits from 71-69 loss at Pittsburgh

Quick hits and notes from NC State basketball in its 71-69 loss at Pittsburgh in front of 8,027 fans at Petersen Events Center in Pittsburgh Saturday afternoon.

Play Of the Game

Head coach Kevin Keatts told the NC State radio crew after the game that he thought Pittsburgh “had some breaks that went their way.”

One play that Keatts could have been alluding to was when the Panthers were up 61-60. Pittsburgh got the ball across half court just as the shot clock showed 20, signifying that perhaps there was a 10-second violation, which Keatts argued for from the bench.

Instead, the officials let it play on, and after Pittsburgh redshirt junior guard Ithiel Horton crossed half court against tight man-to-man defense from NC State redshirt sophomore guard Dereon Seabron, Horton spun around Seabron and with a lane all the way to the basket due to a spread out court was able to beat the defense to the rim for a layup with 1:11 left.

After Pack senior forward Jericole Hellems missed a driving shot in the paint on the other end, Horton broke free for a fast break. NC State freshman guard Terquavion Smith prevented the dunk with a hard foul, but Horton made both free throws with 58 seconds remaining to give the Panthers a 65-60 advantage.

Highlight Of the Game

NC State fifth-year senior guard Thomas Allen stripped Pittsburgh senior guard Onyebuchi Ezeakudo at mid court, then flipped an over-the-head pass to Seabron who finished with the dunk, giving NC State a 48-47 lead with 9:41 left and capping a 13-2 run for the Wolfpack.

NC State Basketball Player Of The Game

This was arguably Allen’s best games of the season. He made 4 of 9 shots from the field, including 4 of 7 three pointers, and finished with a season-high 14 points. Allen also set a year-best for most made threes in a game and was one off his career high of five that he set when he was playing for Nebraska.

Allen’s effectiveness had him on the court for 29 minutes, his second highest playing time total this year behind the 32 minutes he had in the home loss to Florida State. He also finished with the best plus/minus on the team at plus-6.

Team Shooting Slumps Continues

In this game, NC State shot 23 of 58 from the field for 39.7 percent and made 9 of 24 threes for 37.5 percent. The lone positive was a highly effective day at the line, making 14 of 16, or 87.5 percent. One of those misses at the charity stripe was on purpose, when Seabron missed with 1.3 seconds left to try to get a rebound opportunity to at least tie the game.

In its last three games, NC State has shot 29.9, 32.2 and 39.7 percent respectively. It is the fourth time in five contests the Pack ended up at less than 40.0 percent shooting from the field. In the past six games, all losses, since it shot 60.0 percent in a home win over Virginia, the best shooting performance has been 43.3 percent in a 7-point home defeat to Syracuse.

NC State’s season shooting percentage falls to 41.7 percent on the year. That would be the lowest shooting percentage in a year for the Wolfpack since the 1993-94 team made 41.1 percent. That team had been the poorest percentage since the 1959-60 squad made 39.7 percent.

Individual Struggles Continue

Smith went 2 for 12 from the field, including 2 of 8 on threes. This came after Smith went 3 of 16 overall and 2-10 on three pointers in a home loss to Wake Forest Wednesday evening.

In games during which Smith has missed double-digit shot attempts, the Pack is 1-9.

Hellems may have broken out of his three-game slump in which he had made 4 of 24 shots, including 2 of 13 threes. Against Pittsburgh, Hellems was 3 of 7 from the field and 2 of 3 on threes for 10 points, but he was also benched for substantial portions of the game due to foul trouble (finished with four), playing just 23 minutes.

Hellems has finished with four or five fouls in 13 of NC State’s 26 games this year.

Junior guard Casey Morsell made 3 of 8 shots from the field and misfired on all three of his three-point attempts to finish with six points. Morsell is 8-of-29 shooting in his last three contests, including 3 of 15 from beyond the arc.

A Blip In Dominance Of Pitt

NC State entered Saturday with a 20-2 all-time against Pittsburgh in men’s basketball, including 11-1 since the Panthers joined the ACC (not including a 2017 win that had to be vacated due to IARP ruling). Pitt won its first ACC matchup against the Pack in 2014, but had not won since prior to Saturday.

In football, NC State is 3-0 against Pitt since 2009, including winning twice at Pittsburgh in the lone two meetings the teams have had after the Panthers joined the conference in time for the 2013 season.

In baseball, the Pack swept Pittsburgh in four meetings last year and has a 13-0 record vs. the Panthers in ACC play. In women’s basketball, NC State is 8-1 against Pitt after they joined the league.

NC State Basketball Plus/Minus

Here is the plus/minus for each player for NC State basketball:

Allen: +6 (29 minutes played)

Morsell: +3 (24)

Sophomore forward Jaylon Gibson: +2 (9)

Smith: +1 (35)

Sophomore guard Cam Hayes: -2 (18)

Sophomore center Ebenezer Dowuona: -5 (31)

Hellems: -7 (23)

Seabron: -8 (32)

NC State Basketball Game Scores

Using Hollinger’s measure of productivity, players are graded 1-40 with 10 being average for an NBA player.

Seabron: 16.6

Allen: 10.5

Hellems: 4.0

Morsell: 3.3

Smith: 3.2

Dowuona: 3.0

Gibson: 2.7

Hayes: 2.5

What The NC State Basketball Loss Means

The Pack is 10-16 on the season and 3-12 in the ACC, while Pittsburgh improves to 10-16 and 5-10.

The defeat means that NC State basketball will have a losing record at the conclusion of the regular season for the first time since the 2016-17 season, former head coach Mark Gottfried’s last year in Raleigh.

The current six-game losing streak is the longest in the program since the 2007-08 team finished the year mired in a nine-game losing skid.

The game was broadcast by ACC Network. Throughout the year, we’ll keep track of the Pack’s record on the different channels:

• ACC Network Extra: 3-1

• FloSports: 1-0

• RSN: 2-2

• ESPNU: 1-1

• ACC Network: 3-7

• ABC: 0-1

• CBS Sports Network: 0-1

• Big Ten Network: 0-1

• ESPN2: 0-2

We also track NC State’s records by month:

• November: 5-1

• December: 2-5

• January: 3-6

• February: 0-4

Other stats of note

• NC State won the turnover margin 14-9 and outscored Pittsburgh off those turnovers 15-8.
• Both teams had four fast break points.
• Pittsburgh crushed NC State on the boards, 45-25 overall and 15-7 on the offensive glass, which led to a 9-6 edge in second-chance points for the Panthers.
• The Pack’s bench badly outscored Pitt’s reserves, 26-4.
• Defensively, NC State had two blocks and five steals. Wake Forest rejected five shots and stole the ball three times.
• The Panthers led for 20:16, and NC State for 12:55. There were nine ties and 19 lead changes in the back-and-forth game. Pitt’s largest lead was 10, and the Wolfpack’s was seven.

——

• Talk about NC State basketball inside The State of Basketball

• Subscribe to our podcast on iTunes

• Subscribe to our YouTube channel

• Learn more about our print and digital publication, The Wolfpacker

• Follow us on Twitter: @TheWolfpacker

• Like us on Facebook