NC State Dominates Boston College On The Road
CHESTNUT HILL, MA – The NC State Wolfpack traveled to Chestnut Hill Saturday February 6th and took down the Boston College Eagles in a blowout victory 81-65. This victory comes following two straight defeats for the Wolfpack as they fell to Virginia on Wednesday and Syracuse last Sunday. Prior to this contest, the Eagles announced they only had five active scholsrship for this matchup.
Coming into the contest, NC State leads the ACC in turnovers forced (16.57) and is second in the league in steals (9.00) and turnover margin (+3.93). When the Wolfpack defense has forced an opponent into 15 or more turnovers this season the Pack is 7-1. When its opponent has less than 15 turnovers, NC State is 0-6.
Within the first few minutes of the game, both teams looked sloppy as they each team turned the ball over twice within the first four minutes of the game. After falling behind 5-0 in the first two and a half minutes, the Wolfpack outscored Boston College 44-19 the rest of the half to take a commanding 44-24 lead at the half.
As the half, the Wolfpack shot 17-32 (53.1%) from the field and their defense forced nine turnovers and held the Eagles to 8-28 (28.6%) from the field. NC State dominated the interior, as they outscored the Eagles 22-6 in points in the paint. The Wolfpack got 22 of their 44 points off the bench, with 21 of those coming from Shakeel Moore, who was a perfect 5-of-5 from the field with 11 points, and DJ Funderburk who scored ten points and also grabbed six first half rebounds.
The second half looked similar to the first, as the Wolfpack went on another run, as this one was a 12-4 to start the half. Shakeel Moore kept his hot shooting going as he scored five of the first 12 for the Wolfpack. Right as Boston College tried to make a little bit of a run, Moore drilled another three-pointer to spark a 9-0 run to extend the lead to 30 with 11 minutes remaining in the game.
Throughout the final few minutes of the game, Boston College cut into the deficit as NC State emptied their bench, as coach Kevin Keatts allowed some of the freshman to get some minutes on the court.
Freshman Shakeel Moore led the the Wolfack with a careeer-high 19 points on 8-12 from the field and Manny Bates and DJ Funderburk contributed with 14 points and seven rebounds each. Boston College was led by Jay Heath with 20 points. NC State dominated the interior outscoring Boston College 42-22 in the paint and outreboudning Boston College 40-27. The Wolfpack defense was able force 15 turnovers and hold Boston College to 23-59 (39%) shooting.
“We played well at Syracuse and against 14th ranked UVA to win the game. We just needed to have other people step up today to get the job done, which we did today,” head coach Kevin Keatts said following the win.
“It was better for us to get the ball inside today because there was a size difference,” DJ Funderburk said following the game.
The Wolfpack (8-7, 4-6 ACC) looks to continue their winning streak, as they host the Syracuse Orange Tuesday February 9th. The game is set to tip-off at 6:30 PM on the ACC Network.