The NC State men’s basketball team fell in a disappointing fashion, 73-68, to the Louisville Cardinals on Saturday, Dec. 4 inside PNC Arena.

The Wolfpack (6-2, 0-1 ACC) was able to battle back from 14 down at the half to take the lead for the second straight game, this time with a different outcome. The Wolfpack rode a 14-2 run in the first six minutes of the second half, erasing a huge Louisville (6-2, 1-0 ACC) lead and leading for a large chunk of the second.

“I thought we lost a really hard-fought battle tonight,” said head coach Kevin Keatts. “When you look at our team, we got down in the first half [by] 14 points, 43 to 29. And I learned a lot about my guys. We fought all the way to the end and basically had a chance to win the game.”

No player better embodied NC State’s flipped halves than senior forward Jericole Hellems, who had just five points on 1 of 8 shooting from the floor in the first half before notching 13 points on 50% shooting, including several crucial 3s, to end up leading the team in scoring for the game.

“It’s tough,” Hellems said. “Nobody likes to lose, especially in knowing that this is the ACC tip-off and [we were] kind of heading in the right direction. But it’s all good. [We can] take from what we got from the game and move on knowing we got another game to play soon.”

NC State is very much a second-half team this season, further supported by the results of this loss. With the results of today’s game, NC State is averaging 33 points in first halves on the season compared to 41.2 points in second halves.

“[Keatts] was preaching about fighting back really and protecting PNC,” said freshman guard Terquavion Smith of Keatts’ halftime speech. “And doing little things like boxing out and getting loose balls and not letting them outplay us and play harder than us.”

The Pack looked impressive throughout the entire second half, despite the results, playing hearty defense and holding the Cardinals to a subpar 32.1% mark from the field in the period. After sophomore forward Ebenezer Dowuona went on a personal 5-0 run, capping off a 24-9 run by NC State to start the second half, NC State led for the entirety of the next eight minutes.

“We looked a little fatigued from the four-overtime [win],” Keatts said. “But I felt once we settled in and started playing, I thought we did a good job. Some guys played some great individual games. It was a hell of a game. Unfortunately, we had to come in at the short end of the stick. So we’ll get better, we’ll move forward, and then obviously the biggest thing, we need our guys to get a little bit of rest.”

However, Louisville was able to get two back-to-back 3s that were tightly contested in the final two minutes: one deep from Noah Locke and one while falling down from Matt Cross, which ended up sealing the fate of the Pack.

“I thought they made two incredible shots at the end,” Keatts said. “One by Noah Locke, who hit a deep 3 as a shot clock was running down and then the same thing [from] Matt Cross, which obviously was a difference in the game.”

Smith entered the lineup today in place of the injured junior guard Casey Morsell, who went down in the four-overtime victory over Nebraska earlier this week. Smith repaid Keatts’ faith, putting up 17 points in his first career start.

“I thought he was huge,” Keatts said. “This was his first start and it was an ACC game. You know, the unfortunate thing, we were without one of our veterans in Casey [Morsell], and I decided to reward [Smith] to start, and I thought it was tremendous. Looking back after playing at Oklahoma State and then Nebraska, you wanted to see how he would respond, and I thought he played great as a freshman.”

Smith and sophomore guard Cam Hayes were the lone bright spots in an otherwise dismal first half for the Pack. Hellems and redshirt senior Thomas Allen combined to shoot 0 for 10 from deep in the first half, forcing some shots and outright missing others that were wide open. Conversely, Smith and Hayes combined for 16 points on 6-of-8 shooting and connected on four total 3s.

On the other hand, Louisville cooked the Wolfpack in the first behind a balanced offensive attack from Noah Locke, Malik Williams, Dre Davis and Durham, North Carolina native El Ellis, all quarterbacked by Jarrod West. Williams, in particular, pulled out a wide arsenal in the first half, not missing from the floor, hitting two 3s, a mid-range jumper and looking poised in the middle.

There were definitely flaws in the Wolfpack’s day, from shooting 66.7% from the free-throw line to not getting any bench points, but Louisville also had an uncannily great day from beyond the arc. Louisville, which shot 29.2% from 3 entering this game, a number that ranked 300th in the nation, connected on a scorching 39.3% clip on 28 attempts. Louisville’s miracle 3-pointers at the end were just the cherry on top of an unfortunate day for the Pack and, ultimately, a game it was not meant to win despite the spirited effort.

“I think it’s great that we’re fighting,” Keatts said. “Now in an ideal situation, I don’t want to be down every game [by] 14 just to show everybody or prove that we could come back. But this team has no quit in it. At halftime, we talked about what we weren’t doing well. I thought they beat us to a couple 50/50 balls and certainly, that expanded the lead before the half. I think we played solid defense, but it was the intangibles, the loose balls, the extra shots they got that made the difference in the first half.”

Next up, NC State remains at home for a matchup with Bethune-Cookman on Thursday, Dec. 9. Tip-off for that game is set for 6:30 p.m. at Reynolds Coliseum.

“It would be very easy for me to say I’m without the best ACC player, in the country, defensive player, and then obviously one of the best shot blockers in the country, and without Casey Morsell — two starters,” Keatts said. “But it’s not what we’re about as a program. … We’re working our butts off, and some of our guys are getting better and it just shows you that we can compete with anybody in the country even under our circumstances. We will continue to get better.”