As the buzzer sounded, Lenovo Center’s crowd sat in stunned silence. NC State men’s basketball allowed California, whose first year in the ACC is looking shaky at best, walk into Raleigh and steal a winnable game.

Falling 65-62, NC State continued its rapid slide down the ACC standings. With its at-large NCAA Tournament hopes long gone, the Pack’s chances at even making the ACC Tournament are now dropping in a conference that is as weak as ever.

“We’ve had too many games like this,” said senior forward Ben Middlebrooks. “Too many small mistakes, too many 50-50 balls … there’s a lot of things that we have to fix.”

The Wolfpack (9-9, 2-5 ACC) has now played in four straight one-possession games — and lost all but one. Seemingly every game is right there for the taking, but NC State hasn’t seized the momentum, hit its shots or found the ability to grab loose balls and rebounds.

Once again, the Pack let its opponent make all the plays when it mattered most. Out of all NC State’s losses, losing to the Golden Bears (9-9, 2-5 ACC) is certainly the most embarrassing, evidenced by the quiet postgame locker room.

“The tough thing about it is being consistent and getting mentally and physically tough to finish some of these games.” said head coach Kevin Keatts. “What we’re having is a lot of inconsistent games and it’s leading to one-point losses.”

While several stats point to why NC State lost, one thing is far more concerning — a lack of leadership. In a game that was within reach till the final whistle, nobody took over and seized the game from Cal. Senior guard Jayden Taylor had some impressive moments but disappeared late as the Wolfpack leaned on other players to take the final shots. Over halfway through the season and the Wolfpack still doesn’t have a player it goes to down the stretch and having nobody is a losing formula.

“I’m looking for [leadership],” Keatts said. “Do I have leaders in that locker room? Yes, but I need more. I need Ben Middlebrooks to be a leader, I need Michael [O’Connell] to step up. It’s hard for the new guys because they just don’t know what to say and they have not had enough success in an NC State basketball jersey to say something.”

If there’s any way to guarantee a loss in basketball, it’s poor shooting. As it has all season, the Wolfpack was cold from beyond the arc all game, making one of its 10 3-point attempts. Meanwhile, Cal shot a respectable 6-16 from deep, showing NC State how modern basketball is played. Desperately trying to keep pace while relying solely on twos, NC State was bound to lose.

The offensive struggles didn’t stop there. NC State struggled to set up easy shots. The Pack totaled two assists in the first half while only recording three in the second. Notably, the red-and-white’s starting point guard, graduate Michael O’Connell, failed to toss one dime. While some of this can be attributed to poor shooting, the lack of playmaking is crippling NC State’s offense.

Once again the Wolfpack also allowed itself to be outrebounded. The trend of allowing its opponents to consistently win the battle on the boards is one of the more concerning weaknesses for the red-and-white. While shooting can be streaky and playmaking requires good court vision and passing, a large portion of rebounding is simply effort. With both of its primary centers at six-foot-10, there’s little excuse for getting outrebounded so often.

“We are getting beat to 50-50 balls,” Keatts said. “It’s about four or five plays that really swings a good game and we’re really losing those plays.”

NC State will have a week off before facing SMU on Saturday, Jan. 25. The Wolfpack and the Mustangs are scheduled to tipoff at noon with the game televised on the CW.