Mary Goughnour
Senior BeeJay Anya walks in after getting announced in the starting lineup for the game versus Virginia. Anya was recognized with his fellow senior teammates Terry Henderson and Chris Brickhouse in their last home game of the 2016-2017 season.
On senior day at PNC Arena, the NC State men’s basketball team showed some fight, but could not get the job done. State fell 70-55 to the visiting Virginia Cavaliers in the final game at PNC for multiple players, along with head coach Mark Gottfried.
The final home game of this season for the Pack was the last home game of the careers for senior walk-on Chris Brickhouse, senior forward BeeJay Anya and likely the last for redshirt senior Terry Henderson, despite his plans to apply for a sixth year.
“I’ve been the only player from my class who has played four straight years,” Anya said. “Looking back on it and thinking about the times I’ve had here, good times, bad times; it’s been a roller-coaster ride while I’ve been here. That made me tear up a little bit.”
Virginia freshman guard Kyle Guy led all players in scoring with a career-high 19 points. Junior guard Devon Hall and senior guard London Perrantes also had double figures for the Cavs, with 18 and 16 points, respectively.
Freshman guard Dennis Smith Jr. led the Pack with 13 points in what was likely his final home game as well, with a trip to the NBA draft seemingly in the cards for the five-star recruit following this season.
“I think he’s had a marvelous freshman year,” Gottfried said of Smith. “Sometimes the expectations are so high; I’m as guilty as anybody of putting them on him, but we all are. Sometimes you don’t really appreciate how good somebody is every night. Not only is he a freshman, but he’s a freshman who missed a season of competition last year with a torn ACL. You look at him and what he’s done coming off of that, I think it’s pretty spectacular.”
Both teams struggled on offense early, as neither side could find open shots or figure out the other’s defense with State leading 13-10 at the 10-minute mark of the first half. Despite having four players score in double figures, the Pack shot just 32.1 percent from the floor on the day. The Cavaliers struggled initially but eventually found their groove, shooting 48.8 percent from the floor and a scorching 68.8 percent from 3-point land.
“I thought our inability to make an open shot was the difference,” Gottfried said. “Obviously they’re a really good defensive team, but I also thought we had a ton of wide open shots we couldn’t make. That makes the game really hard, especially in a game that’s got fewer possessions. The way they play, the style they play, the open shots you get, you’ve got to make some of them.”
Back-to-back threes for the Cavs in a span of 30 seconds around the eight-minute mark seemed to wake Virginia up. That sparked an 18-2 run over 3:52 for UVa, including a couple more wide open looks from downtown, something that has been all too familiar for the Wolfpack this season.
The Cavs took a 35-21 lead into the break and ended up shooting 7 of 12 from beyond the arc in the first half. Guy led all first-half scorers with 14 points, going 4 of 6 from three. Freshman guard Markell Johnson, who finished the game with 11, and Smith tied for the Pack first-half lead at eight.
Abu ignited the crowd early in the second half with a thunderous dunk on a 3-point play that pulled the Pack within 14. The big man finished the contest with 12 points on 5-of-10 shooting, while adding nine boards.
“BeeJay has been here for four years,” Abu said. “Terry’s time here has been short, but he’s a Raleigh native. It was an emotional night. We tried our best to seal the win, but fell short. We try not to focus on [who will return and who won’t], we’ll have some games in ACC Tournament where we feel like we can make a run.”
State opened the second half with a narrow 18-17 edge in 10 minutes, not enough to close the gap significantly, despite a couple of threes from Johnson and Henderson. The Pack continued to struggle to get defensive stops in order to sustain momentum and make a run.
The Wolfpack started to pull closer after Johnson’s three at the 10:46 mark. A 10-7 run capped off by a three from sophomore guard Shaun Kirk at the 6:06 mark pulled the Pack within 10 at 59-49.
Two free throws from Henderson, who finished with 10 points and four boards, brought State within eight at 5:29. However, five straight points for the Cavs quickly restored their double-digit lead and put the game out of reach.
Unfortunately for the Pack, that eight-point deficit was as close as it would get, and the Cavs closed things out down the stretch as NC State dropped the final home game of the Gottfried era.
NC State will wrap up its regular-season schedule next Wednesday with a trip to South Carolina to take on the Clemson Tigers.