There are career-defining nights, and then there are the nights that redshirt sophomore guard Dereon Seabron just had. The NC State men’s basketball team overcame the Nebraska Cornhuskers in quadruple overtime, 104-100 behind Seabron’s career and Big Ten/ACC Challenge-high 39 points and 18 rebounds.
In a night full of crazy antics from both teams and the longest game since 1988-89 for the Pack, Seabron erupted in the second half and carried the Wolfpack to a hard-fought victory in a seemingly endless game. After going down by 14 points, the light switch turned on and Seabron poured it on, scoring 12 points after that to bring the Pack to a 70-point tie with the Huskers and sending the game to its first overtime.
“This was a great character win,” said head coach Kevin Keatts. “It was a toughness win. It was what NC State basketball is all about. I thought Dereon [Seabron] did tremendous. Big Ten/ACC Challenge record with 39 points, 18 rebounds. But not only him, I thought that the guys who came in the game, everybody contributed in a positive way. You know, for a moment we lost [sophomore guard] Cam Hayes, [junior guard] Casey Morsell, and [senior forward] Jericole [Hellems] fouled out, and so we’re playing with babies. And I thought that they did a tremendous job finishing the game, so I’m super proud of these guys. Their fight is unbelievable.”
Seabron scored 33 of his 39 points in the second half and four overtime periods, propelling the Wolfpack to the comeback win. Seabron went down with a scary knee injury early in the second half, coming back in and playing a grand total of 57 minutes. Seabron shot 11 of 22 from the floor and made 17 of his 20 free-throw attempts, also coming down with six offensive boards.
Sophomore forward Ebenezer Dowuona also came up big down the stretch, notching a career-high eight blocks and having several huge plays late. The first big moment for Dowuona came in the third overtime, where he snagged an offensive board and put it back to send the Pack into its fourth extra period. His second big moment came late in the fourth overtime period, getting the offensive board and getting the ball to Seabron, who essentially sealed the deal with a layup.
“I think that is the most blocks I have ever had,” Dowuona said. “I take pride in defense. I go in hoping to break the record every day. I had seven last time, that was my career high, and today I had eight. I am looking forward to getting better.”
It was also a fantastic day for Keatts, who earned a commitment from five-star guard Robert Dillingham earlier today and who coached his heart out tonight. Keatts was effective with his substitutions in spite of losing several players and called a key timeout in the second overtime that led to Nebraska guard Bryce McGowens splitting his free throws and giving the Pack a chance to win.
“I don’t know if I want this day to end,” Keatts said. “It’s been a good day. My team played extremely hard. Never doubted that we were going to win the game. There were so many ups and downs in the game. I think with 10 minutes left we were down 14, and you could see it in their eyes during every timeout and every huddle that we felt like we were going to win the game.”
This was a hard-fought and gritty contest in every way. Both Seabron and Morsell went down with an injury, the latter who didn’t return, four players fouled out of the game, there was a huge brawl that saw four players, including Hayes, get ejected, and neither team shot above 41.7% from the floor or 24.3% from deep. Despite being outshot and playing true freshmen and sophomores for huge chunks of the game, the Pack came away with the dub.
At first, the Wolfpack played a solid first half against the Cornhuskers. For starters, NC State connected on 4 of 11 shots from downtown and missed just one of its nine first-half free throws. Morsell had 12 points in the first, hitting 4 of 5 from the floor along with two 3s and two steals. The transfer guard ended up with 14 points and four rebounds before his ankle injury in the second half sidelined him for the remainder of the game.
However, the Pack offense stalled out on several occasions, going scoreless for over five minutes in the latter part of the first half. Furthermore, anytime Dowuona wasn’t helming the middle, the Pack struggled. In the first half, the Pack was a plus-nine in 10 Dowuona minutes versus a combined minus-10 in 10 combined minutes with forwards sophomore Jaylon Gibson and freshman Ernest Ross. Gibson, in particular, struggled, going 0 for 2 from the field and turning the ball over.
NC State also struggled with shots around the rim, shooting 45% on 2-pointers and going a poor 5 of 11 on layups. Comparatively, Nebraska was 11 of 14 in that area.
The first half was also a battle of paces, with NC State steadily controlling the tempo of the game early, getting out to a 23-14 lead at one point behind Morsell, Hayes and Hellems. However, once Gibson checked in, and after Dowuona picked up his second foul, that speed came to a screeching halt.
Conversely, Nebraska was able to ride an on-fire Alonzo Verge Jr. in the first, who went along to the tune of 12 points, five rebounds, four assists and a steal. Verge had a highlight-reel moment in which he smartly whipped the ball from halfcourt into the corner for Keisei Tominaga, who connected on a 3-pointer and picked up a foul, giving the Huskers a 4-point play. Verge ended the game with 25 points, 10 rebounds, eight assists and two steals while Tominaga had 16 points and five 3s.
If only either team knew what it was getting into at the end of the first.
The start of the second half was nightmarish for the Pack. Nebraska almost immediately jumped out to a seven-point lead and then NC State went on a huge scoring drought, failing to score for over four minutes midway through the second, and allowing the Cornhuskers to take a 22-9 scoring run through the first part of the second half.
Then, behind heroics from Seabron and Hayes, the Pack stormed back to tie the game following a Hellems 3-pointer. Hayes had five points in this stretch and was instrumental in getting the Pack back into things. But then, all hell broke loose. Following the Hellems score, Nebraska’s Lat Mayen got into it with Hayes, leading to the ejections of both Mayen and Hayes, as well as Husker players Eduardo Andre and Oleg Kojenets. Hayes ended the game with 13 points and four rebounds and his ejection moved Seabron into the lead-guard role.
“I really like playing with the ball in my hands,” Seabron said. “I know that I can make plays whether it is me scoring or just finding an open man. I think it was second overtime, I felt like no one on the court could stop me from getting to the rim.”
Seabron and Verge continued to trade blows into the second half before freshman guard Breon Pass came up with a clutch block on Verge to send the game into its first overtime period. Despite shooting just 11 of 30 from the field and 1 of 12 from deep, along with missing five free throws in the second half, the Pack rode its 14-0 run to overtime and, eventually, the victory.
The first overtime period was, for the most part, uneventful. The two teams failed to score anything until just 57 seconds were left in the period, at which point Nebraska’s Derrick Walker laid one in. Seabron again put the Pack in prime position, striking right back and then hitting two free throws after a Verge score to send the game to its second overtime.
Dowuona opened up the second overtime period for the Pack with a dunk that sent PNC Arena into an uproar, giving the Pack a lead. However, the Cornhuskers answered right back with a quick 7-0 run. Hellems, who ended the night with 15 points, seven rebounds and four assists on 5 of 17 shooting from the floor, came up with a huge drawn 3-point foul, sinking two free throws to cut into the lead before a Seabron jam that gave him his 30th point of the night.
With just four seconds remaining, and the Pack down by just a point, Seabron pulled out the heroics and cut through traffic, a move he had put on full display all night long, and hit a contested layup to give the Pack a one-point lead.
Just when it looked like the game was finally over, freshman guard Terquavion Smith, who ended the night with nine points and nine rebounds on 3 of 14 shooting, questionably fouled McGowens. McGowens, who finished with 24 points and nine rebounds, surprisingly split his free throws when all seemed lost, sending the game into yet another overtime.
At the start of the third overtime period, Pass was called for a foul, which brought redshirt senior guard and former Cornhusker Thomas Allen into the game. Allen was effective in limited time, coming in cold and sinking two free throws before nicely intercepting a pass by Walker. Allen’s free throws were especially interesting, as it seemed Nebraska’s Wilhelm Breidenbach either puked or spit water on the court in an effort to ice Allen at the free-throw line.
After a missed Tominaga 3-pointer, Pass brought the ball down the court and after Smith missed the lay-in, Dowuona came up big again with an offensive board and put it back to give the fans even more free basketball.
Smith opened up the scoring in the fourth overtime period, connecting on a 3-point jumper that broke him out of his slump and gave NC State the lead. Allen connected on a layup to extend the Wolfpack lead before Seabron seemingly put the game out of reach with a layup with 44 seconds left.
Nebraska wasn’t quick to go away, however, getting a McGowen layup before Kobe Webster hit a super late 3-pointer to sow some worry into the hearts of the Wolfpack faithful. It was too little, too late, though, and Allen completed his revenge by nailing a free throw to officially put the game out of reach.
It took an all-out effort and it wasn’t pretty — the Pack and the Huskers finished with a combined 38 turnovers — but NC State was able to pull out the victory. All hands were on deck for the Pack’s victory with Seabron leading the way and drawing some national attention to his breakout season.
“I think our guys played well,” Keatts said. “Surely we want to try and build on that. I mean, these games are tough. We talked about playing for NC State but this is the one time where we are playing for our conference, too. At the beginning, we said, ‘Hey, we can get two things done: get a win for NC State and get a win for the ACC.’ So I was proud of our guys.”
Next up, the Wolfpack will open ACC play against Louisville, playing inside PNC Arena at 2 p.m. on Saturday, Dec. 4.
“It can definitely boost our confidence,” Seabron said. “It just shows coach Keatts that we will never quit. We will keep fighting until the clock says zero. It is good for us, especially going into the conference game with Louisville on Saturday.”
