Sunday night at PNC Arena started with a ceremony prior to the final home game for redshirt senior center Jordan Vandenberg and senior forward Jevoni Robinson. By the time the clock struck zero on N.C. State’s regular season, it was abundantly clear that it was also a celebration of one of the finest players ever to represent the Wolfpack.
Sophomore forward T.J. Warren dazzled in perhaps his final home game at N.C. State, scoring a career-high 42 points and hauling down 13 rebounds (tying his career-high) to lead the Wolfpack past Boston College, 78-68.
The Pack closed out the regular season at 19-12 overall, 9-9 in the ACC and will be the seventh seed in the upcoming ACC Tournament. State will await the winner of Miami and Virginia Tech in the second round.
Warren’s outburst put him in rare territory in the annals of N.C. State and ACC history. He became the first ACC player to score 40+ points in back-to-back games since Kenny Anderson in 1990. Only twice in ACC history had it been accomplished against league competition, with the other two coming in 1957 (North Carolina’s Lennie Rosenbluth and South Carolina’s Grady Wallace).
The sophomore from Durham also became the first Wolfpack player to pull the feat since David Thompson tallied 42 against UNC-Asheville and a school-record 57 points versus Buffalo State in consecutive games in Dec. 1974.
“Let me just say, number one, T.J. was marvelous,” N.C. State head coach Mark Gottfried said. “I have been around college basketball a lot, I played college basketball and I have coached in a lot of different leagues. What you are watching is not something that you see very often.”
N.C. State took its first lead with 11:25 remaining in the first half when Warren hit a jumper that gave him 10 points at the time. The Pack extended its lead to 42-31 at intermission and was ahead by as much as 14 points before the Eagles mounted a rally, led by sophomore guard Olivier Hanlan, who finished with 29 points and five assists.
Boston College held the Wolfpack scoreless for almost six minutes and used a 15-0 run to take a 47-46 advantage with 12:30 remaining. The game stayed close over the next seven minutes, with four ties and two lead changes.
Warren made a free throw to give N.C. State the lead and then he rebounded a miss from junior guard Desmond Lee. The ensuing put-back basket gave the Pack a three-point advantage with five minutes remaining.
Lee then drilled a 3-pointer, with Warren getting the assist, to extend the advantage to six points. From there it was simply academic, as Warren put the finishing touches on one of the greatest performances in N.C. State history.
“I am playing my best basketball right now,” Warren said. “I just want to keep that up. It is March, so that’s the best time to do it.”
