Virginia Hands NC State Second Straight Loss
RALEIGH, NC – The 14th ranked Virginia Cavaliers handed the NC State Wolfpack their second straight defeat, as they took down the Wolfpack 64-57. This is the second straight loss for the Wolfpack following the loss of Devon Daniels for the remainder of the season,
Coming into the contest, the Wolfpack led the ACC in steals (9.23), turnovers forced (17), and turnover margin (+4.31). This was a battle of strength vs strength, as the Wolfpack lead the ACC and ranks 21st nationally in forcing opponents into turnovers at 17.0 per game, and UVA leads the ACC and ranks second nationally in turnovers per game, averaging to commit only 8.6 an outing. When the Wolfpack force 15 or more turnovers, they are 7-1, and when they force less than 15, they are 0-5.
Both teams struggled through the first two and a half minutes as they combined to shoot two for their first eight shots before both teams began to find their rhythm hitting on three of their next six shots, as the Wolfpack jumped out to a 9-7 lead at the first media timeout. The next few minutes the scoring went back and forth before the Cavaliers took a 14-13 lead at the 11:06 mark in the first half.
The first 12 minutes of the game were a back and forth battle between Jericole Hellems and Sam Hauser, as Hauser scored 11 of the first 19 points for UVA, and Hellems scored ten of the first 18 for the Wolfpack.
As the Cavaliers went cold and couldn’t score for over six minutes, the Wolfpack preceded to go on a 9-0 run over five minutes to jump out to a 22-19 lead. The Cavaliers came back down the next possession and knocked down a three-pointer to tie the game up at 22 right before the under four-minute timeout.
As the Wolfpack finished the half shooting 2-of-11 from the field, the Cavaliers closed the half much stronger to take a 28-24 lead at the break. At the half, Sam Hauser led the Cavaliers with 11 points of four of five shooting, and Jericole Hellems led the Wolfpack with 14 points on five of seven from the field. Other than Hellems, the rest of the Wolfpack shot a dreary 5-of-22 (22.7%) from the field.
After the sluggish and sloppy start to the second half for the Wolfpack that allowed the Cavaliers to extend their halftime lead to eight, NC State responded well with three straight baskets to cut the lead down to three at the 14:32 mark left in the game. Virginia came out of the media break and responded with a run of their own to extend the lead back to nine with 12:28 remaining in the game.
As Virginia went cold, not scoring for almost six minutes, and NC State responded with a 10-0 run to take a one-point lead with 6:53 remaining in the game. The Wolfpack held that one-point lead for 16 seconds before the Cavaliers responded with a 14-4 run to jump out to a nine-point lead with 3:19 remaining.
The Wolfpack tried to battle back in the final few minutes but their effort fell short as the Cavaliers held the last-minute charge off. Virginia was led by Sam Hauser and Trey Murphy III with 18 points each. The Wolfpack were led by Jeicole Hellems with 23 points; just one short of his career-high her set last game. Other than Hellems, no other NC State player scored more than nine points, as the Wolfpack offense struggled the whole night.
Despite the awful shooting in the first half, the Wolfpack were able 43.4% from the field, as they shot 13-25 (52%) in the second half. Defensively, NC State did a good job, as they forced a Virginia team that averages 8.6 turnovers, to turn the ball over 11 times.
When asked what they did defensively to force those 11 turnovers, Senior Braxton Beverly said, “We just did what we do in practice every day. We tried to force them to take difficult shots and tried to make them feel uncomfortable.”
The Wolfpack look to bounce back, as they head to Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts, to take on the Boston College Eagles on February 6th. The game is set to tip-off at noon on the ACC Network.