The NC State men’s basketball team, 15-16 (4-14), dropped its final game of the regular season as the Clemson Tigers defended their home court on the team’s senior night by winning 78-74 Wednesday night.
This game was a familiar story to State fans, as the team headed into halftime with a lead but walked away from the game in defeat.
To continue with the theme of consistent patterns, many of the problems that have plagued the Wolfpack (15-16, 4-14 ACC) all season continued tonight. The Tigers (15-14, 5-12 ACC) controlled the boards to finish the game winning the rebound battle by four. But the most alarming stat was that State surrendered 12 offensive rebounds to the Tigers. Freshman guard Dennis Smith Jr. was the leading rebounder for State with eight. Clemson bigs Jaron Blossomgame and Sidy Djitte finished with eight and nine, respectively.
Despite State’s inability to secure rebounds on the defensive end, the game was very tightly contested from start to finish. The largest lead either team held in this game was 6 points.
In the first half, the Pack featured a balanced offensive attack. Sophomore forward Maverick Rowan and junior forward Abdul-Malik Abu led State in scoring with nine and eight points, respectively. However Clemson guard Shelton Mitchell led all scorers at halftime with 10 points. Freshman forward Ted Kapita scored the last bucket of the half to give the Pack a 38-37 lead.
The second half was just as close, but State faded a bit coming down the stretch. Abu parlayed the hot start into a strong game as he was the game’s top point getter with 18. However, the second half belonged to Blossomgame, as he scored 16 points after a scoreless first half.
As fatigue started to set in, State’s players looked a little tentative about driving to the basket. Their opponents did not have this problem late in the game and it seemed to be the difference. While both teams missed one free throw in the second half, State only had four attempts from the stripe while Clemson had 12. This contributed to Clemson winning the second half and ultimately the game.
With the regular season over, State now has to prepare to play in the ACC Tournament. Its first game will be Tuesday, but the time and opponent are still to be determined.
