NC State’s men’s basketball team traveled to Tallahassee Monday night to take on the Florida State Seminoles, suffering a 77-73 defeat and putting its NCAA Tournament hopes further out of reach.
As usual, junior guard Cat Barber led the scoring charge for the Wolfpack (12-11, 2-8 ACC) with 31 points on the night, while freshmen Dwayne Bacon and Malik Beasley combined for 35 points on Florida State’s (15-7, 5-5 ACC) side.
The Wolfpack was coming off its most impressive victory on the season, beating No. 15 Miami 85-69 at home and showing off newfound offensive efficiency.
However, it was Florida State that came out hot from the field, hitting six of its first 11 3-point shots in the first half. Those shots came from five different players, with Bacon being the lone Seminole to knock down two.
The Wolfpack was unable to counter with any shots of its own from beyond the arc, missing their first five and allowing a game that was tied after six minutes to envelop into a 36-20 deficit with 3:29 remaining.
Barber was quick to counter with the next six points for NC State, but Florida State held a 38-26 lead heading into halftime.
The Wolfpack’s big men were notably absent from the box score in the first half. Abdul-Malik Abu was the only one between himself, Beejay Anya and Lennard Freeman to come up with a bucket, scoring four points on as many shots; Freeman and Anya came up empty on their two attempts.
NC State came out with increased defensive intensity in the second half, hoping it would lead to points in transition to offset their struggles in the half-court offense. These efforts paid off, as the Pack forced four turnovers in the first seven minutes of the half, each of which led to points at the other end.
Caleb Martin came alive from the field, nailing three of his four 3-point attempts in the half’s early-going, the last of which was the culmination of a 12-3 run that cut the Florida State lead down to 63-61.
However, this is when the Wolfpack offense stalled, as the Seminoles extended their lead back out to 10 behind Bacon’s leadership.
With just 5:09 left to play, it appeared that NC State was down and out, but Barber refused to let the team go down without a fight, nailing three jump shots in successive possessions, two of which were of the 3-point variety.
The junior point guard scored 10 consecutive points for the Wolfpack, cutting the score to 75-73 with under a minute to play, before a Bacon jump shot with 16 seconds remaining sealed the deal for Florida State.
The Wolfpack’s postseason aspirations are becoming increasingly futile now in what is likely to be head coach Mark Gottfried’s first season sitting out of March Madness since coming to NC State four seasons ago.
Though he’s managed to engender a lot of production out of twin’s Caleb and Cody Martin, who combined for 24 on the night, he has not seen consistent performances from Anya, Freeman and freshman guard Maverick Rowan, who managed just four combined points. With such a short rotation, those three have to make more of a nightly impact on the scoreboard.
The Pack travels next to Durham Saturday to face a 15-6 Duke Blue Devils team that has also struggled recently in conference play, dropping four of its past five games. A win is necessary to prevent the team from falling completely out of the picture for the NCAA Tournament.
