Poor shooting leads to NC State loss versus UNC

RALEIGH – The NC State men’s basketball team fell to in-state foe UNC, 67-54, Wednesday evening in front of a sold out PNC Arena crowd.

Casey Morsell led the Wolfpack in scoring with 12 points, going a perfect 6-for-6 from the charity stripe. Morsell scored the 1,000th point of his collegiate career on a free throw in the first half.

The Ft. Washington, Md., native tied his season-high with six rebounds.

D.J. Burns, Jr. was the only other NC State player to reach double figures with 11 points.

Guard DJ Horne grabbed a career high 10 rebounds, eight of which came in the first half. Horne became the second player this season to record eight or more boards in a single half.

The Wolfpack struggled from all areas of the floor, shooting just 26.9 percent on the evening.

After trailing by as many as six in the first half, the Wolfpack cut the deficit to two, heading into the break thanks to a 6-2 scoring run across the final two minutes of the frame. Burns led all NC State scorers with seven points in the half.

Mohamed Diarra’s fourth three-pointer of the season came midway through the second half and cut the Tar Heel lead back down to two, 46-44. After a UNC basket to push the lead back to four, Ben Middlebrooks found a cutting Michael O’Connell for a lay-up to bring the Pack back within two, 48-46, with 10:19 to play.

NC State would only connect on three field goals the rest of the game though as UNC went on a 19-4 run to take a 67-50 lead with 4:06 to go and effectively put the game away.

RJ Davis led the way offensively for the Tar Heels, finishing with 16 points and going 4-for-10 from three-point range.

Harrison Ingram grabbed a game-high 19 rebounds for the Heels while Elliot Cadeau finished with 11 points and a game-high six assists.

The Wolfpack head to Kentucky to take on Louisville on Saturday Jan. 13. Tipoff is set for 12pm on The CW.