NC State men’s basketball falls at Ole Miss on cold shooting night 

NC State guard DJ Horne launched his sixth 3-pointer of the night from the left corner in the second half at Ole Miss on Tuesday night. The ball looked like it had a chance out of his hands, but it rattled around the rim and fell out, one of his seven misses from deep on the night.

It was that kind of shooting night for the Wolfpack. 

NC State shot 12% from three as it lost to Ole Miss 72-52 in the ACC/SEC Challenge on the road at The Sandy and John Black Pavillion in Oxford, Miss. 

“We played as individuals, and that’s completely on me,” NC State coach Kevin Keatts said on the postgame radio broadcast. “I’ve got to do a way better job. … We didn’t score tonight. And a lot of times when you’ve got teams with so many new faces, when you don’t score the ball it kind of hurts the defense a little but. Our energy was poor and that’s completely on me.”

The Wolfpack struggled to shoot the ball from the outside, even though it found decent success in scoring in the paint. NC State (4-2) outscored Ole Miss (6-0) 32-22 near the basket despite the Rebels’ ability to clog that area. The red and white did have nine of its shots blocked by the Rebels, a season high.

While the Pack found some success there, Keatts thought Ole Miss’ ability to defend the interior hurt NC State’s ability to drive and kick to open up 3-pointers.

“Ole Miss does a good job of selling out to protect the paint,” Keatts said. “We just passed the ball around the perimeter and jacked up threes instead of driving and kicking. We didn’t do a good job. Once again, for whatever reason, offensively we were not flowing tonight.”

It was all Ole Miss in the early going. The Rebels jumped out to a 14-3 lead in the first quarter after a 10-0 run. The Wolfpack offense went cold and was stagnant, which led to a slow-moving offense that missed seven straight 3-pointers after junior guard Jayden Taylor opened the scoring with a triple. 

The Rebels used a trio of offensive rebounds to score six second-chance points in its run, but the Wolfpack soon found an answer: forward Ben Middlebrooks. 

Middlebrooks single-handedly kept the Wolfpack in the game with his 10 quick points. That cut the Rebels’ lead to five and NC State was able to get within three before it opened up a 7-0 run to keep the Pack at arm’s length. 

Middlebrooks led the Wolfpack with his first-career double-double — 13 points and 12 rebounds — off the bench.

NC State’s rebounding did improve as the half progressed as it picked up six offensive rebounds in the final 12 minutes, which the Pack turned into nine second-chance points. 

But the Pack’s offensive rhythm that showed itself in a spurt in the first half, disappeared in the final 20 minutes. 

Ole Miss opened the second half on a quick 5-0 run and was able to build a lead as big as 24 points late in the period to race past NC State. 

The Pack’s offense turned into heaving 3-pointers, which was not a recipe for success and Keatts thought the team did not have great ball movement. 

“We just didn’t get a lot of good player and ball movement,” said Keatts, whose team had 10 assists on 21 made baskets. “I thought the ball stuck. I thought it was ‘your turn, my turn.’ We’ve got to do way better than that. I know this team is learning how to play together and it’s early in our season, but we’ve got to get way better than that. … We’re going to own this one. We’re going to accept it, and we’re going to battle and work our ass off.”

NC State’s starting five combined to score 28 points while its bench almost outpaced them with 24, led by Middlebrooks’ valiant effort. 

Graduate guard Casey Morsell was the only other player in double figures with 12 points, while Taylor had 5 and Arizona State transfer guard DJ Horne had 5 points. Graduate forward DJ Burns also logged 5 points in the loss. 

The lack of production from the team’s starting unit put the Pack in a deficit that it could not climb its way out of and it dropped its second straight game. 

“When we don’t get anything from DJ Burns as far as scoring and we don’t get Casey scoring and Jayden Taylor or DJ Horne, we’re going to struggle as a team,” Keatts said. “Those guys have established themselves as guys that can score in our offense, and we couldn’t put it in the hole tonight.”