Emily Peedin
Redshirt-senior guard Thomas Allen searches for a teammate to pass to during the game against Virginia on Saturday, Jan. 22, 2022 at PNC Arena. Allen made two assists throughout the game. NC State beat Virginia 77-63.
Ice is everywhere in the city of Raleigh on Saturday, Jan. 22, but it was especially in abundance in the veins of the Wolfpack men’s basketball team. NC State defeated the Virginia Cavaliers in a resounding way, crushing the Cavs 77-63 inside PNC Arena.
NC State (10-10, 3-6 ACC) played its most complete basketball game of the season against Virginia (11-8, 5-4 ACC), with huge performances from freshman guard Terquavion Smith and senior forward Jericole Hellems leading the way. The Wolfpack went down 26-18 in the first, but Smith’s huge first 10 minutes kept the Pack within striking distance and, as soon as Hellems got hot, the Wolfpack took the lead and never looked back.
“In the first half we really shot the ball well,” said head coach Kevin Keatts. “I thought Jericole [Hellems] and Terquavion [Smith] really got us started. And then once we got in the bonus in the second half, we started driving a little bit more and got to the free-throw line. So, proud of these guys, a lot of fight. I think you could tell we were really hungry to win this one. I’m just happy that those guys played well enough to get it done.”
The Wolfpack put on a shooting clinic in the dominating win, connecting on 54.5% of its 22 3-pointers and getting nine of its 12 3s from Hellems and Smith. Smith finished the game with 20 points, three assists, two rebounds and completely took over the mismatch he had over Virginia’s Kihei Clark. Smith had 16 of his points in the first and had 13 of the Pack’s first 15 points.
“It was definitely good seeing shots go in,” said junior guard Casey Morsell. “We know we could compete with anybody in the country on the offensive end. We just had to bring it defensively. … We knew once we locked in on the defensive end that a lot of opportunities on the offensive end would open up.”
Hellems put on a show in the win, hitting a wide array of 3-pointers and a couple of circus shots including a deep 3-pointer at the first-half buzzer and pulling a fadeaway jumper from his arsenal. When Hellems hits three or more 3-pointers in a game, the Wolfpack is now 5-1 on the year.
“Well, you know, he played as a senior today,” Keatts said. “He and I talked about that, he’s got to be the one steady guy. He’s really the oldest guy that’s playing a lot of minutes on our roster. … He made shots early in the game. … Jericole, I just thought he stepped up on both ends of the floor and did a great job. And, you know, we are a good team, because of our youth, when one of our older guys, or really our only older guy who’s playing the most minutes, steps up and plays well, and so I’m excited that he had the game that he had.”
After losing in terrible fashion at home to Virginia Tech on Wednesday and not scoring for the first seven and a half minutes in that game, it was clear the Pack had a chip on its shoulder entering the game. NC State eclipsed its first-half point total from that game in the first 13 minutes of this matchup and quickly matched its assist total in that game in the first half.
“It was great,” Smith said. “We all came locked in. We knew what we had to do and we just played with a chip on our shoulder. … We looked at a scouting report, you know, we knew that they were hard closeouts, so it was either going to be a 3 or rip drive. So coach [Keatts] was preaching that to us. So it was just getting to the lane and finding others.”
The Pack got good contributions from just about everyone in the rotation, with redshirt sophomore guard Dereon Seabron coming on in the second half and finishing to the tune of 13 points, six rebounds, five assists and two steals. Morsell also had a “revenge game” of sorts against his former team, finishing with 12 points on 71.4% shooting, seven rebounds and two steals.
“Any win’s a good win,” Morsell said. “UVA … those guys are still my brothers, still to this day. It was good to go out there and play against those guys. Those guys have developed and are taking a leap in their games, especially on the defensive end, all of those guys have stepped up. So it was good to kind of go and compete against those guys, because, you know, they know what I can do and I kind of know what they can do. So it was good. It was a good feeling.”
Morsell was part of the lineup that changed the Pack’s fortunes alongside freshman guard Breon Pass, Seabron, Hellems and sophomore forward Ebenezer Dowuona. When Pass checked in, the Pack went on a 12-3 run in his minutes. Pass and Morsell are the Pack’s best defensive backcourt duo and the way it completely turned the Wolfpack’s fortunes was evident.
“That’s probably our best defensive unit,” Keatts said. “I’m so excited, Casey [Morsell]’s getting back to playing really good basketball. And Breon [Pass], you know, every day in practice, he’s earning a little bit more minutes. He’s probably the only guy that we got on our team that can pick you up full court and turn you a lot. And so that was our defensive unit that we went with. And, you know, Breon stepped up. I think in the first half, he had a great drive and a finish with his left hand and then a big 3 in the second half.”
In that first-half stretch, Pass hit a layup, an assist and the Wolfpack forced two turnovers. That set of plays was just one part of a larger whole that ended up transforming into a 22-3 run as Hellems got going and had all five of his 3-pointers in the period.
It was a particularly strange game for the Cavaliers, who looked strong in the first half but quickly cooled off and made several simple errors as the game went on. The Cavs actually shot 58.8% from deep on 17 attempts, out-rebounded the Pack and got a good performance from Jayden Gardner, a Wake Forest native who had NC State on his final list of schools as a transfer out of East Carolina.
But don’t get it twisted, the Wolfpack had a very strong defensive game despite Virginia’s 3-point numbers — the team shot a very bad 34.2% on its 2-point attempts. Though Smith will mostly get attention for his offensive efforts, he had two steals and a block in the win; one steal came through traffic as he ripped the ball right out of the opposition’s hands, and his block came on a 3-point attempt by Clark while flying through the air for the denial.
The Pack wound up accounting for seven steals and four blocks in the win.
It’s wins like these that show flashes of what this team could be if the roster was at full health. Despite its record, this team has been in every game this season, and the Pack finally put it together in the dominant win.
“A lot of games have come down to the wire,” Morsell said. “And we’ve been in a lot of situations where we know we let games slip away. … We know that UVA is the type of team that they’re not going to quit, they’re not going back down. … And in the second half, when they’re down, they’re gonna run it 10 times harder to get back in it. So, you know, we did what we had to do on the defensive end to close the show and we just got to keep bringing it every game.”
Next up, the Wolfpack hits the road to take on Notre Dame on Wednesday, Jan. 26. That game starts at 9 p.m. and can be viewed on RSN.