AUBURN, Ala. — The NC State men’s basketball team went to No. 12 Auburn looking for one of the marquee wins it lacked last season, and despite keeping it close until the end, the turnovers and unnecessary fouls proved to be too much to overcome, and the Pack fell 79-73. 

“I thought our guys fought all the way to the end,” said head coach Kevin Keatts. “We’ve got a short bench, and so we had foul trouble all over the place, so we started playing some different combinations. [Sophomore forward] Jericole Hellems had to play at the 3 a little bit, but it’s a great game. We made some mistakes, but that’s what happens when you play a good team on their home floor, and I think we will be better because of it.”

The Wolfpack (8-3, 1-1 ACC) was led by the veteran duo of redshirt senior guard C.J. Bryce, who scored 21 points on 7-for-15 shooting, and senior guard Markell Johnson, who scored 17 on 6-for-11 shooting. 

“I thought both of those guys stayed aggressive,” Keatts said. “They both made some timely baskets when we needed it. I thought everybody that came into the game played. It was a great game. It was a great atmosphere. I know that students are going for Christmas, but I thought it was a great atmosphere; it was a great game against two really good teams.”

The first half was a near-comical calamity of failed fundamentals by the Wolfpack. Missed free throws, air-balled layups, silly fouls and a number of turnovers resulting from wildly misplaced passes and travels all contributed to what should have been a massive halftime deficit, but in fact, the Wolfpack entered the break down by just one point.

The Wolfpack went just 6 for 11 from the free throw line and put Auburn in the double bonus just over 10 minutes into the game. The Tigers converted their chances from the charity stripe better than the Wolfpack did, but their 10-for-11 clip was still underwhelming. 

While the failed fundamentals stood out above everything in the first half, there were a number of positives. The Wolfpack started the game holding the Tigers to just 1-for-8 shooting in the opening five minutes, while Bryce went 3-for-4 for seven points in the same period. From there though, Auburn took control for a bit.

The Tigers opened up a 10-point lead on a 15-2 run, but the Wolfpack battled back. Excellent scoring from redshirt junior forward D.J. Funderburk and back-to-back 3-pointers from Bryce and graduate forward Pat Andree put the Wolfpack back on top 33-28 after a 17-2 run. But the Wolfpack hadn’t shut the door on its early miscues yet and regressed to the poor performance it showed in the middle part of the half, allowing Auburn to end the first 20 minutes of play on a 10-4 run.

“It was a back-and-forth game, and I think we’ll get better,” Keatts said. “I see the growth in us already. I’m glad that we had this series, because it means a lot to me now that we’ve been challenged in this 4-5 game stretch that we have, and we surely got one more game before Christmas that we want to build on and get better.

The second half saw little to no improvement in the Pack’s ability to do the fundamentals. In the opening eight minutes alone, the Wolfpack committed eight fouls and seven turnovers, with Bryce and Johnson both picking up technical fouls. Johnson was also forced to go to the bench with four fouls before the 12-minute mark in the half.

With Johnson picking up his fourth foul and the team’s other primary ballhandler, junior guard Braxton Beverly, also in foul trouble, the Wolfpack was without any of its usual point guards.

“That was tough, because the focus is we’ll still run our stuff,” Keatts said. “We had a tired C.J. Bryce in the game, and so when those guys got in foul trouble, we had to play C.J. at the point, and he got the ball taken away because he was tired, but I didn’t have another sub for him.”

Despite the poor ball management and even poorer discipline, NC State managed to continue to keep the game close, trailing by just one point after those eight minutes.

The sloppy play continued throughout the half, but the Pack was helped by Auburn’s willingness to go foul for foul and turnover for turnover with the Wolfpack in the second half. With the Tigers leading just 61-58 with just under seven and a half minutes to play, each team had 15 turnovers across the whole game and nine second-half fouls.

“When it started to get chippy, the officials started getting a little bit tighter with the calls,” Bryce said. “That’s the way we play; we like to deny and get out in the passing lanes. We’ve got to pay better attention to detail, can’t pick up those fouls, because we’re very limited at the guard position right now and we really can’t have guys get into foul trouble.”

The game continued to go back and forth as the time wound down. The Wolfpack took the lead and then lost it, tied it and then lost it, but when the time came, even with all the turnovers and silly fouls throughout the game, the Wolfpack continued to battle until the final whistle.

The Pack brought it as close as five points in the final minute, but a dagger of a 3-pointer from leading scorer Samir Doughty with 40 seconds left put the final nail in the Wolfpack’s coffin.

The Wolfpack will be back in action on Dec. 22 as it hosts The Citadel at 6 p.m. in PNC Arena.