NC State basketball quick hits from 76-61 win over Georgia Tech

Quick hits and notes from NC State basketball in its 76-61 win over Georgia Tech in front of 4,568 fans at McCamish Pavilion in Atlanta Tuesday evening.

Play Of the Game

On the third possession of the game, NC State freshman guard Terquavion Smith took his first shot of the contest after he grabbed a long offensive rebound, connecting on a three-pointer.

The shot put NC State up 5-0, a lead that would expand to 12-2 in less than four minutes and never go under double digits the rest of the game.

Highlight Of the Game

Pick your Smith dunk:

NC State Basketball Player Of The Game

In his two games prior to playing Georgia Tech, Smith had made just 5 of 28 shot attempts and was 4 of 18 on three-pointers. He had been in single digits for back-to-back contests for the first time in ACC play.

That ended in a big way at Georgia Tech. Smith connected on 9 of 13 shot attempts, including 6 of 8 three-pointers, and finished with a game-high 26 points. He also set a personal best in an ACC game with eight rebounds.

Smith has made at least six three-pointers in four games this season and has 79 overall this year. He needs two more to match Maverick Rowan’s school record for most threes by a freshman in a season, set six years ago. Smith has also now scored at least 20 points in six ACC games.

The only negative is that Smith played just 24 minutes because he was benched for extended periods of time with four fouls. Smith has had at least four fouls in three consecutive games.

Dominating Performance

For the first 30 minutes of this game, NC State was demolishing Georgia Tech. The Wolfpack jumped out to a 14-2 lead, and the Yellow Jackets never got within single digits for the rest of the contest.

When it took a 23-point lead in the first half, NC State established its largest positive margin in any game of this season. At halftime, the Pack had set a season-high in points in the first half while more than doubling the Yellow Jackets, 51-25.

NC State’s 30-point lead at one point in the second half was its largest in a game this season.

A sluggish final 10 minutes made the score somewhat more respectable for Georgia Tech. NC State made just 1 of 15 shots to end the contest and missed its final 10 shots from the field while scoring only 10 points in the last 12-plus minutes of the game.

Making Threes

Coming into Tuesday, Georgia Tech has been very good when it comes to defending the three-point line, allowing just 30.3 percent, which was second best in the ACC.

NC State made 8 of 14 three-pointers in the first half and finished 11 of 29 overall, setting a season-high for threes allowed by Georgia Tech.

This is the second time that a streaky NC State shooting team, which statistically is having one of the poorer shooting years in recent Wolfpack history, was hot against a premier defense.

Against Virginia’s famed defense, NC State made 30 of 50 shots overall for 60.0 percent and 12 of 22 threes for 54.5 percent.

Per David Teel of the Richmond Times-Dispatch, that was only the second time in Tony Bennett’s 13 years as the coach at Virginia that an opponent shot 60 percent or better, the other being Gonzaga last season when the Bulldogs were NCAA runner-up.

The Pack reaches its bye

NC State is one of just three teams in the ACC that has played the maximum of 16 conference games at this point in the year, and the Wolfpack has this weekend off. It turns its attention to recruiting by hosting On3 Consensus four-star guard Judah Mintz from Oak Hill Academy in Mouth of Wilson, Va., on an official visit. Mintz is rated the No. 50 prospect nationally in the On3 Consensus, a complete and equally weighted industry-generated average that utilizes all four major recruiting media companies.

The other two teams that have played the full 16 league contests are Wake Forest and Virginia. The Cavs will have no midweek game in the final week of the regular season, while Wake Forest will not play the final weekend before the ACC Tournament.

The bottom six seeds of the ACC Tournament have to participate in day one of the event, and NC State seems certain to play in that round. The only chance to avoid it would be to win out and hope that either Florida State or Syracuse loses out.

NC State Basketball Plus/Minus

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

Smith: +24 (24 minutes played)

Senior forward Jericole Hellems: +17 (39)

Junior guard Casey Morsell: +15 (23)

Redshirt sophomore guard Dereon Seabron: +12 (35)

Sophomore center Ebenezer Dowuona: +8 (23)

Sophomore forward Jaylon Gibson: +2 (15)

Sophomore guard Cam Hayes: +1 (25)

Sophomore guard Chase Graham: 0 (1)

Freshman guard Alex Nunnally: 0 (1)

Fifth-year senior guard Thomas Allen: -3 (15)

NC State Basketball Game Scores

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

Smith: 24.2

Hayes: 10.8

Seabron: 9.2

Dowuona: 4.9

Morsell: 4.9

Hellems: 3.0

Allen: 1.3

Nunnally: 0

Graham: -1.4

Gibson: -1.7

What The NC State Basketball Win Means

The Pack is 11-16 on the season and 4-12 in the ACC, while Georgia Tech falls to 10-15 and 3-11.

The win is head coach Kevin Keatts’ first in five games against the Yellow Jackets. Below is Keatts’ record as a coach against other ACC teams at NC State.

Opponent	Wins-Losses
Boston College	5-2
Clemson	4-4
Duke	2-4
Florida State	1-4
Georgia Tech	1-4
Louisville	2-3
Miami	3-2
North Carolina	2-7
Notre Dame	4-3
Pittsburgh	7-1
Syracuse	3-4
Virginia	3-4
Virginia Tech	1-3
Wake Forest	7-2

NC State leads the all-time series against Georgia Tech, 57-43 (one win was vacated by recent IARP ruling).

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: 4-7

• 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: 1-4

Other stats of note

• Georgia Tech won the turnover margin 13-11, but the Pack outscored the Jackets off those turnovers 15-8.
• Tech had a slight 12-11 edge in fast break points.
• NC State won on the boards, 44-35 overall and 11-10 on the offensive glass, which led to a 14-12 edge in second-chance points for the Pack.
• The Pack’s bench outscored Georgia Tech’s reserves, 14-7.
• Defensively, NC State had three blocks and five steals. Georgia Tech rejected four shots and stole the ball nine times.
• NC State led for the final 39:34 after scoring 26 seconds into the game, and its largest lead was 30 points.

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