The NC State men’s basketball team’s 2020-21 season came to an end as it fell 65-61 to the Colorado State Rams in the quarterfinals of the NIT.

The Wolfpack (14-11, 9-8 ACC) played well to begin the game and took a three-point lead into halftime before the Rams (20-6) used an excellent second half of shooting to take control of the game and get the win.

“Couldn’t be more proud of a team,” said head coach Kevin Keatts. “This team has fought through everything that you could ever imagine, when you talk about COVID, you talk about the injury to [redshirt senior guard] Devon Daniels, and not having [redshirt junior guard] Thomas Allen, and then not having the opportunity for [senior guard] Braxton Beverly to play tonight.”

The Pack was without Beverly due to an injury, making him the third veteran guard out of the game alongside Daniels and Allen.

Without its entire group of veteran backcourt players, the Pack made it a point of emphasis to attack the paint early in the game, and it did so through redshirt senior forward D.J. Funderburk, who scored the game’s first seven points and the first nine for the Pack. Funderburk had another bucket just before the 10-minute mark of the first half to give him 11 points in the half.

The Pack jumped out to a 9-3 lead to begin the game, but that was as big as the lead would get the rest of the night as the Rams went on a 9-2 run to take the lead. The Pack quickly regained the lead and had a 28-25 advantage at the end of what was a poor shooting first half as both teams combined to shoot 3-25 from beyond the arc.

A 3-pointer that was somehow banked in from the corner by junior forward Jericole Hellems to begin the second half stretched the lead back to six. However, the Rams inched closer over the next few minutes and took the lead 38-35 with 15:20 left. The two teams went back and forth over the next couple of minutes, as there were four lead changes before the Rams went on a 6-0 run to take a 46-41 lead with 10:43 left.

The margin got as slim as one and as wide as eight over the next few minutes, but with 22 seconds left, the Pack found itself down two with possession of the ball. The ensuing in-bounds play led to a missed 3-point attempt by Hellems and a rebound by the Rams, who knocked down a pair of free throws with six seconds left to seal the game and end the Pack’s season.

After a dominant start to the game, Funderburk was not nearly as effective over the last 30 minutes of the game and scored just one bucket in the second half while dealing with foul trouble to finish with 13 points.

“I think [Colorado State] made adjustments,” Keatts said. “Without Braxton Beverly being out there, we lost a shooter, and so it’s easy just to sag off some of those guys who don’t shoot the ball as well. [Colorado State] packed the paint a little bit more in the second half… I thought we had some bad turnovers trying to force the ball in.”

Hellems finished with a team-high 15 points, while redshirt sophomore forward Manny Bates also finished in double figures with 13.

After shooting 27.6% from the field in the first half, the Rams shot 60% in the second half to finish shooting 44.1% in the game, which was barely better than the Pack’s 43.9%. Neither team shot the 3-ball very well as the Pack shot 23% and the Rams shot 13%.

While the Pack didn’t make the NCAA Tournament, the two NIT games it played gave returning players valuable postseason experience.

“I think it was big for us, just for the future, so we know what the postseason feels like,” Bates said. “Granted, it’s not the NCAA Tournament, but it is still somewhat a postseason, so just that knowledge and feeling of what to expect for next year could take us a long way in the future.”

It has been a tough season for NC State and every other team in college basketball with having to play during a global pandemic. It has also been especially tough for the seniors, whose last season of college basketball has been one of the most bizarre of all time.

“I just love my team,” Funderburk said. “I love the way we play with passion, effort, everything. I just love my guys, and I couldn’t ask for a better group to go out there [with] tonight and play my last game.”