Coming off its 11-point victory over the Duke Blue Devils (and second win against the second-ranked team in the country), the NC State men’s basketball team hosts red-hot No. 19 Clemson at 9 p.m. at PNC Arena Thursday night.
Clemson (14-1 overall and 3-0 in the ACC) has won 10 games in a row and stands half a game behind the Virginia Cavaliers for first place in the ACC. The Tigers are coming off a narrow 74-69 overtime home victory over the Louisville Cardinals. Redshirt junior Marcquise Reed led all scorers with 24 points and willed his Tigers to their 10th-straight victory.
Reed’s performance against Louisville marked his fourth 20-point game of the season as he continues to be the Tigers’ best scorer at 15.9 points per game. Junior forward Elijah Thomas accounted for his fifth double-double of the season, and senior forward Donte Grantham had double-digit rebounds for the fifth time this season.
The strength of the Tigers comes from the balance their starters provide. Each starter averages over 11 points per game, including the big man Thomas who nearly averages a double-double at 11.6 points per game and 8.3 rebounds per game. Reed remains their go-to scorer when they need him, averaging a team-best 39.7 percent from three and 84.3 from the free-throw line. The Tigers’ balanced attacks is complimented by a top-25 ranked scoring defense, and the combination has led them to one of the best starts in school history.
For the first time in program history, NC State has beaten two teams ranked No. 2 or higher in the regular season. The scene against Duke was a familiar sight for Wolfpack fans; when the Blue Devils entered PNC Arena on Jan. 15, 2015, they were handed an 87-75 defeat.
Duke started off well, controlling the first portion of the game. NC State hung around, and eventually took the lead with 7:29 left after a 12-point run that was emphasized with a clutch 3-pointer from graduate guard Sam Hunt. The rest of the seven minutes was back-and-forth, until sophomore center Omer Yurtseven put an exclamation on his 10-point and six-rebound first half with a two-handed put-back slam that gave the Wolfpack a 43-41 lead at the half.
The Wolfpack managed to hold off the Blue Devils the entire second half, despite Duke’s best attempts to go on a devastating run. Redshirt junior Torin Dorn led the Wolfpack early in the second, and ended up with 12 points in the half and 16 total.
Clutch 3-point and free-throw shooting late in the game cemented the Wolfpack’s lead and had PNC jumping. Dorn hit a big three at the 2:02 mark, and freshmen guards Braxton Beverly and Lavar Batts Jr. added two free throws each within those two minutes to put the Blue Devils away.
The Wolfpack only committed 10 turnovers compared to the Blue Devils’ 16, a margin that will need to happen again in order to have success against the veteran Clemson lineup. Yurtseven finished with 16 points and nine rebounds while senior Abdul-Malik Abu added 10 points and two rebounds. The two big men will look to capitalize on that performance in order to compete against Clemson’s dynamic forwards in Thomas and Grantham.
The key matchup of the Thursday night showdown is the Wolfpack’s senior guard Allerik Freeman versus Clemson’s Reed. Freeman is averaging 15.3 points per game compared to Reed’s 15.9, and both of the veteran guards lead their respective teams in minutes per game.
The Wolfpack’s road does not get any easier after Thursday as the team travels to Charlottesville, Virginia, to face the No. 3 Virginia Cavaliers Sunday at 6 p.m.
