Wolfpack Struggles Continue Against UNC
Chapel Hill, NC – The saying goes, “defense wins championships,” and for the NC State Wolfpack, the defense has been their struggle lately, and that continued on Saturday, as the NC State Wolfpack took a trip down the road to Chapel Hill to take on the Tar Heels and fell by a score of 86-76.
Entering this contest, the Wolfpack rank 10th in the country with a +5.2 turnover margin, but in the team’s three-game losing streak coming into this matchup, the Pack were a combined -8 in the turnovers. The Wolfpack does lead the ACC in other defensive categories which include steals per game (9.3) and turnovers forced (17.8) but lately, the Wolfpack have struggled to generate this defensive intensity that led to their hot start to the season.
The first half began with the Tar Heels scoring eight of their first ten points in the paint, as they attacked and challenged the big men of the Wolfpack. Trying to stop the Tar Heel big men has been a challenge for every team this year as they loaded up their front court this season with four players six-foot-ten or larger.
Wolfpack fans saw spurts of what they were used to early on in the season, with the Wolfpack shooting the ball well in the first half as they were 14-of-30 (46.7%) from the field. Despite the strong shooting from the field, the Wolfpack trailed 43-33 at the half as they allowed 28 first half points in the paint and turned the ball over eight times.
One of the biggest keys when facing a Roy Williams coached North Carolina team, is to try to keep them off the offensive boards. This years’ team is the same, as the Tar Heels sit at the top of the ACC, averaging almost 16 offensive rebounds per game. This contest was the same, as the Tar Heels were able to gather 14 offensive rebounds.
The Wolfpack struggled to keep the Tar Heels out of the paint as they were dominated inside allowing 48 points in the paint. Armando Bacot had 17 points and eight rebounds and Day’Ron Sharpe had 16 points and ten rebounds.
Looking at the positives, the Wolfpack defense were able to get back to forcing turnovers the way they started the season as they forced 13 Tar Heel Turnovers and had a +2 turnover margin but the lack of ability to stop the Tar Heel interior scoring proved to be too much.
The Wolfpack were led by Redshirt-Senior Guard Devon Daniels with 21 points and Redshirt-Senior Forward DJ Funderburk with 14 points. During this contest, Senior Guard Braxton Beverley was able to knock down his 200th career three-pointer as a NC State player.
“I thought our guys played really hard today.,” head coach Kevin Keatts said following the game.
NC State, (6-5, 2-4 ACC) looks to bounce back as they host the Wake Forest Deamon Deacons on Wednesday, January 27th at 8 pm on the ACC Network. The Tar Heels, (10-5, 5-3 ACC) look to keep things going as they head to Pittsburgh on Tuesday, January 26th, to take on a red hot Panther team.