The NC State men’s basketball team broke out of its slump Wednesday night, traveling down to south Florida and beating Miami 83-72 to snap a three-game losing streak.
A strong performance by redshirt senior guard C.J. Bryce and hot shooting from redshirt junior guard Devon Daniels and junior guard Braxton Beverly powered the Wolfpack (15-8, 6-6 ACC) past the Hurricanes (11-11, 3-9 ACC) for its first ACC win in over two weeks.
Daniels started out hot, knocking down three 3-pointers in under 11 minutes and scoring nine of the Pack’s first 16 points. The two teams traded buckets for most of the first half, until a Bryce 3-pointer jump-started the NC State offense. Over the last 8 ½ minutes of the first half, the Wolfpack outscored Miami 25-12, more than doubling up the Hurricanes as Bryce and Daniels got into a groove offensively.
Once the second half started, it was Beverly’s turn to put the offense on his back. The 6-foot guard hit three 3-points in a 2 ½-minute span, and after Bryce’s layup just 30 seconds after Beverly’s 3-pointer, the Wolfpack took an 18-point lead, the largest of the game.
NC State wasn’t able to keep its foot on the gas, however, and the Hurricanes quickly came roaring back. An 18-4 run over the next six minutes cut the Pack’s lead to just four points and forced Wolfpack head coach Kevin Keatts to call a timeout.
Keatts drew up a nice play for senior guard Markell Johnson out of the timeout, and Johnson was able to get the layup to fall. But Miami answered right back, as guard Dejan Vasiljevic sank a deep 3-pointer, his third of the game, that cut NC State’s lead to one score for the first time since the 7:10 mark of the first half.
With the Wolfpack clinging to a three-point lead, Bryce dropped in a layup on offense, then after a Vasiljevic miss, grabbed the rebound and kicked it out in transition to Johnson, who found redshirt freshman Manny Bates down low for a thunderous dunk to put NC State up 75-68 and give the Pack some breathing room with just over three minutes remaining.
After Miami split two free throws on offense, Johnson drove down the right side of the paint and laid in a high-arcing, finger-roll layup to put NC State up eight and ice the game with a little over two minutes to go.
Despite operating in foul trouble during the second half, Bryce had one of his best games of the season, scoring 22 points on 8-for-16 shooting and hauling in 10 rebounds for a double-double. Johnson joined the double-double party as well, scoring 19 points and dishing out 12 assists. Daniels and Beverly each finished with 14 points, and Bates scored 10 without missing a shot to round out the Wolfpack’s double-digit scorers.
NC State will return to action Tuesday, Feb. 11, when it travels to New York for a matchup with Syracuse. The Wolfpack is jockeying with the Orange for positioning in the middle of the ACC standings, and a win would go a long way toward securing a bye in the ACC Tournament. The game will tip off at 7 p.m. and will be broadcast live on ESPN2.
