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Sports

Brooks Leads North Carolina to Victory Over NC State

Brian Hayes

RALEIGH N.C. – After coming off of a tough loss to Georgia Tech on Saturday, the NC State Wolfpack came back to PNC Arena tonight to face the North Carolina Tar Heels.

UNC junior forward Garrison Brroks dominated the paint on both sides of the court and finished with 25 points, 11 rebounds and three blocks as the Tar Heels defeated NC State 75-65 in front of 19,500+ raucous fans.  

“We lost the game with physical and mental toughness inside of the paint,” said Wolfpack head coach Kevin Keatts. “We gave up too many offensive rebounds, missed out on free-throw block-outs. … We’ve got to get tougher. Some of my better players aren’t playing good basketball.”

North Carolina took over the game when they had an 11-point lead midway through the second half, and NC State couldn’t recover – no matter how close they cut into the lead.

“In order for us to get better,” Keatts said,  “I gotta get everyone back on the same page: back playing good basketball.”

N.C. State senior guard C.J. Bryce is the team’s leading scorer with 13.9 points per game. However, he went scoreless for the second-consecutive game. 

 “We couldn’t get our stops down the stretch that we needed to make,” Bryce said.

Junior forward D.J. Funderburk led the Wolfpack in scoring with 18 points, eight rebounds and two steals. Junior guard Devon Daniels had a standout game he finished 17 points, six rebounds, three steals and three assists he contributed on both ends of the floor.

“We have about 2-3 guys who are playing good basketball,” Keatts said, “D.J. was one, Markell (Johnson)  is another and Devon (Daniels had a great game. We don’t have three, four or five guys which we need to be successful.”

Three other Tar Heels finished with 11 points: freshman forward Armando Bacot, sophomore guard Leaky Black and senior guard Brandon Robinson.

“We weren’t locked in enough on defense,” Daniels said. “We were making it easy for them. They move a lot on offense. We knew that coming into the game. We just didn’t follow our scouting reports.”

What’s Next

UNC  (10-10, 3-6 ACC)  hosts the Boston College Eagles Saturday, Feb. 1, at 6:00 pm.

NC State (14-7, 5-5 ACC) hosts the No.6 Louisville Cardinals Saturday, Feb. 1, at 2:00 pm.