The North Carolina State Wolfpack had an uncharacteristic slump on defense against the Virginia Tech Hokies on Saturday afternoon at PNC Arena, giving up 51 points in the second half and trailing 84-78. Defeated.
No matter how it goes, it's a bad loss for the Wolfpack, as the Hokies enter this season 2-4 in ACC play and 0-4 on the road.
The Wolfpack was solid defensively throughout the first 20 minutes and even continued to force turnovers at a high rate – the Hokies committed 20 turnovers throughout the game – but the team’s intensity decreased in the second half. , on the contrary, stood up. , they watched the game start to slip.
“Our defense wasn't very good in the second half,” North Carolina State coach Kevin Keatts said. “Look at how we played in the first half, look at what we did, we forced 20 turnovers and did some good things, but I think we did a good job defensively. This team is not a group that gives up on straight-line drives, and our players were able to drive us all the way to the rim. It just wasn't good enough.
“Our defense was who we were. If you pick up a stat sheet, you'll say, 'The coach was complaining about the defense, and they forced the team to commit 20 turnovers.' That doesn't happen often. The thing about this team is that our defense saved us. Notre Dame didn't score, but their defense helped them. The defense saved us against Wake Forest. We were really good at it. ”
It was especially tough down the stretch, with the Hokies making 9-of-9 field goals in the final seven minutes as the Pac's defense collapsed, effectively shutting it down.
Sean Pedulla and Hunter Kattore, who combined for 32 points on the day, had 20 points during the period.
“Early in the second half, once we relaxed them and got them comfortable, I thought we started playing some really good basketball,” Keatts said. “Those two guys were at the top of our scouting report and led us. They shouldn't let us get hit with dribbling or anything like that. That's disappointing. There weren't many games where I could say we weren't very good defensively, but especially The first half wasn't very good.”
NC State never stopped its full-court press in the final minutes of the game, so while the effort was there, it wasn't enough as they couldn't stop it.
“I don’t think we were as aggressive as we were in the first half,” Keatts said. “We were that aggressive with two minutes left in the second half. When it looked like we might lose the game, we stepped it up.”
Additionally, Pack has struggled with the ball, committing 18 turnovers of his own and is now averaging 14 turnovers per game compared to his last four games.
“One of the things we've had to clean up recently that we didn't do early in the season is we're turning the ball over,” Keatts said. “It's strange because all season long we've been taking care of the basketball and the last few games we haven't been able to do that. We've got to get back to it. We're still winning the turnover battle, but by a wide margin. We were winning. They turned it over 20 times and I don't think we took advantage of all of it. I think we gave back a little bit.”
Despite forcing 20 turnovers, the Wolfpack only scored 25 points off those turnovers.
Even for NC State's big team, as DJ Barnes, Mo Diarra, and Ben Middlebrooks combined for just 16 points on 7-of-19 shooting, and overall they only had a nine-point scoring difference off the bench. It was a tough match.
“I thought he was OK today, just like Ben played against Wake Forest, so we didn't see the rise that you usually get off the bench,” Keatts said. “I thought there was a time when Mo had Mo. I thought Micah was OK but I didn't think we would be able to play with a great infusion of energy off the bench the last few games.”
Shot selection wasn't great for NC State either, as the team recorded 6 of 19 hits from deep. They just kept pulling up despite the lack of a drop, unlike the game against Wake Forest where they shunned the three-ball when it wasn't working.
“I give them a lot of freedom, so I'm not going to say, 'Oh, we took a lot of terrible shots,'” Keats said. “I don't look at it that way. We scored 78 points, good enough to win the game, but conceding 84 points is not good.”
The Wolfpack's next games are a two-game road swing against Virginia and Syracuse, before returning home to host Miami on Jan. 30.
