The NC State men’s basketball finally put an end to the miserable seven-game losing streak with a close win against Georgia Tech on the road, 71-69. This marked the first victory since the Pack’s historic upset at Duke on Jan. 23.
The Wolfpack (15-14, 4-12 ACC) came out with the same tenacity it displayed at the end of the Notre Dame game that it had seemingly lacked for much of the season, out-rebounding the Yellow Jackets (16-12, 7-8 ACC) 40-28, including a whopping 13 offensive rebounds.
Freshman Markell Johnson helped bring out the energy in the first start of his career as the team jumped out to an early 14-8 lead. However, it had no answer for ACC Freshman of the Year candidate Josh Okogie, who put up 10 of Georgia Tech’s first 12 points and finished the half with 14 points on 7-of-9 shooting.
With the help of 8 consecutive points from redshirt senior Terry Henderson, the Pack built a 10-point lead, its highest of the game, with just over three minutes left in the half. Georgia Tech then mounted a run of its own and cut the deficit to 5 with 30 seconds left in the half. However, Johnson tossed up an alley-oop to freshman Ted Kapita and sophomore Maverick Rowan stole the ball on the very next play and put up a layup to give NC State a 39-30 lead to end the first half.
The second half was again highly contested but fluctuated throughout the half, with GT cutting the deficit to as few as four but the Pack never leading by more than nine at the 8:05 mark. The Yellow Jackets tightened up defensively on Smith, as he had no points on just two shots all half up to this point.
Then, almost on queue, Smith drilled a contested 3-pointer that sparked a 7-2 to give the Pack its largest lead of the game, 59-48, with just 3:41 to play.
Trying to preserve the lead, the Wolfpack continued the use of its small-ball lineup to combat GT’s full-court press. The Pack extended its lead to as much as 14, but also faced a scare as the Jackets cut it down to merely one point with 2.1 seconds left.
Henderson led NC State with 21 points on 7 of 11 from the field to go along with five rebounds. Smith joined him in double figures with 18 points, three boards and three steals. Okogie continued his dominance into the second half, leading all scorers with 25, but it wasn’t enough for his team to complete the comeback effort.
The Wolfpack looks to take its momentum into Saturday’s matchup against Virginia for the final home game of the season at noon.
