NC State basketball drops fourth home game in a row, falls to 4-13 in ACC with BC loss
On Monday, Kevin Keatts was asked how a week off would affect his team.
He suggested waiting until Wednesday before answering.
Keatts said his team played one of its most complete games against Georgia Tech on Feb. 15. After a long break, the Pack was back in action, this time taking on Boston College. Unfortunately for N.C. State, most of the game it looked like a team coming off a long break.
The Eagles took advantage of a sluggish Wolfpack, winning 69-61.
It was the first time Boston College won at PNC in the Keatts era.
N.C. State (11-17, 4-13 ACC) has three games remaining on its schedule. The Wolfpack’s last one at PNC is on Saturday against UNC. Then it travels to Wake Forest and Florida State before the ACC Tournament in Brooklyn.
If the Wolfpack does more of the same, it’s hard to see where win No. 12 will come from.
N.C. State is 0-3 against the remaining teams on its schedule. The closest game was against Florida State on Jan. 1, a two-point loss. The Heels and Demon Deacons each won by double-digits. The Carolina game on Jan. 29 was the worst loss of the season for the Wolfpack, 100-80.
“We wanted to build some momentum, great momentum, going into the tournament,” Keatts said. “The tournament can be magical, anything can happen, if you get hot and start playing well.”
Although Keatts has constantly commended his team for its fight, the fifth-year coach can’t be pleased with the execution against the Eagles.
The Wolfpack finished with 18 turnovers, which led to 21 points for Boston College. Sometimes making a pass to one another was an issue.
“It’s going to be hard to beat anybody when you turn the ball over 18 times,” Keatts said. “We gave up 21 points off turnovers and they had 12 fastbreak points. That’s 32 points we didn’t get to defend in an eight-point game. It’s hard to beat any team when you give up that many points for touchdowns.”
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While the Eagles certainly aren’t the cream of the crop of the ACC, they looked like world beaters at times on Wednesday. After the Pack took a two-point lead on a 3-pointer from Jericole Hellems, the team missed two in a row, followed by four consecutive turnovers. During that same span, Boston College went on a 12-0 run to break the game open.
N.C. State typically goes on a late run where it makes it at least interesting. That didn’t happen against the Eagles. The Wolfpack endured a two-minute scoring drought with less than five minutes remaining. Terquavion Smith, normally the spark plug for the team, hit a late 3 to end the drought. Smith, who finished with 21 points, spent most of the first half on the bench in foul trouble.
He did provide that much-needed energy in the first half. He returned to the game with 6:19 remaining in the half and scored seven straight points to pull the Pack within one.
The Wolfpack faithful hoped that N.C. State got all the bad stuff out the way early. Turns out, unfortunately, it had plenty of bad left.
“I just think we were careless with the basketball,” Keatts said.
Nine of its turnovers came in the second half. The Wolfpack shot 37% from the field after intermission. The Eagles shot above 50% in both halves, 54% in the second. N.C. State cut the lead to single digits twice late, but immediately gave up points on the other end. Smith scored five straight, but the Pack gave up four points to Demarr Langford and Makai Ashton-Langford on the other end.
N.C. State was forced to try and foul its way back into the game in the final 1:14. By that time, the fans at PNC Arena started to head for the exits.
That has been the case way too often at home this season, where N.C. State has dropped four in a row since beating Virginia on Jan. 22.
NO ALLEN FOR SENIOR DAY
N.C. State senior Thomas Allen only played two minutes. He asked to come out of the game in the first half. After the game Keatts told the media he thinks Allen has a foot injury and is expected to be done for the year.
“It doesn’t look good,” Keatts said. “That’s sad to me, a young man who was going into senior night on Saturday, didn’t get a chance to finish his season last year. I feel bad for him, I feel bad for our team. That’s tough to swallow.”
That leaves N.C. State with eight scholarship players for the remainder of its season.
Allen appeared in 26 games this season, with six starts. The Raleigh native averaged four points per game.
“I don’t anticipate seeing him play on Saturday,” Keatts said.
STRONG START, SLOW FINISH FOR SEABRON
Seabron finished with 20 points, but only scored three points (1-6) in the second half. At times this season, Seabron has turned it on late, when the Pack needed him in crunch time. Lately, though, he’s been playing strong early, but not so much late in games.
“I’ve been trying to figure that out all year long,” Keatts said. “Maybe I should take the blame. I said ‘hey man, I need you to play better in the first half and maybe he heard it in a different way. He’s had some great games for us, but we haven’t seen the game where he’s been able to play great for both halves.”
Seabron shot 6-7 from the floor in the first half.
SMITH SETS RECORD
Smith hit four 3-pointers against Boston College. That gives him a total of 83 for the season, a freshman record at N.C. State.
The rookie from Greenville leads the conference in made 3s.
“I don’t want to take away from his performance this year because we’re not having a great year,” Keatts said. “That kid has been special for us. He’s played far beyond a freshman. He’s been an unbelievable bright spot.”
Smith has dropped more games his freshman year than his entire prep career at Farmville Central. In a post game interview, Smith told the media the key is to stay positive the rest of the way.
“It means a lot (the record),” Smith said. “This is my dream school, so it means a lot to me to come in and do that.”
This story was originally published February 23, 2022 at 8:58 PM with the headline "NC State basketball drops fourth home game in a row, falls to 4-13 in ACC with BC loss."
