In its penultimate regular season game, the NC State men’s basketball team fell 101-76 to Wake Forest in Winston-Salem on Wednesday, March 2.
After trailing by just one at the break, the Wolfpack (11-19, 4-15 ACC) was outscored 60-36 in the second half as the Demon Deacons (23-8, 13-7 ACC) ran away with the win. The difference between the two halves? Junior guard Casey Morsell had a simple answer: everything.
“Everything; everything changed,” Morsell said. “Defense, we weren’t as active. We didn’t talk as much. On offense, we went back to what made us lose all year. Selfish basketball. No passes. No movement. It was easy for them to guard. Just like we say, good defense leads to easy buckets on the offensive end. That’s pretty much how they got going.”
While the Pack put up a similar number of shots to Wake Forest, 62 compared to Wake’s 64, the Demon Deacons shot 60.9% from the floor while the Pack managed a mere 40.3% clip. Rebounding also proved to be a deciding factor, with the Deacs grabbing 15 more boards.
The Pack’s offense, especially in the second half, started and ended with freshman guard Terquavion Smith. The freshman sharpshooter racked up 22 points on 6 for 18 shooting, including going 5 for 10 from deep, but his efforts were in vain as redshirt sophomore guard Dereon Seabron struggled to get into the game and senior forward Jericole Hellems went quiet in the second half.
“When our big three doesn’t play well, it doesn’t give us the best chance to win,” said head coach Kevin Keatts. “When you look at Terquavion, I thought he had a good night and Jericole had a solid night, but we didn’t get a lot from [Seabron] tonight, which makes it tough.”
In one of his worst scoring games of the season, second only to his two-point performance against UNC, Seabron was held to just five points on 2 for 8 shooting.
“Seabron kind of never really got going in the game,” Keatts said. “I thought they did a good job on ball screens, staying with him a couple of times. He missed some shots that he normally would make around the rim. If we don’t have him playing [well], it puts us in a tough situation. Didn’t have a great first half and we were able to stay in the game and put ourselves in a good situation, but we can’t win a game, a 40-minute game, when he doesn’t play well.”
Morsell ended the game with 10 points and seven rebounds, one of just four members of the Pack to score in double digits.
Although NC State trailed by as many as nine points early and the Demon Deacons held the lead for 17:46 of the first half, the Wolfpack ended the half on a 9-2 run and entered the break down just 41-40.
“I thought we came out in the first half and did a good job,” Keatts said. “Obviously they came out red hot and made five 3s, but we closed a half and did a great job with it.”
While the Pack got good first-half contributions from two of its big three, with Hellems and Smith combining for 27 of the Pack’s 40 first-half points, Hellems scored just three points after the break, with all of them coming from the charity stripe.
With the Pack’s frontcourt already depleted, something it has dealt with all season, foul trouble exacerbated the problem in the second half. Less than four minutes after the break, sophomore forwards Ebenezer Dowuona and Jaylon Gibson had already both picked up their fourth fouls. Both players ended up fouling out.
Before he fouled out, Gibson managed to score eight second-half points on 4 for 4 shooting. Besides Smith, Gibson was the only member of the Pack to score more than four points in the second half.
Between Smith being the Pack’s only consistent source of offense and the bigs getting into foul trouble early in the second half, Wake Forest was able to pound the ball inside, outscoring NC State 50-22 in the paint, and pull away down the stretch, putting any idea of an NC State comeback out of the question.
“Second half, I thought we came out and started the half well,” Keatts said. “One of the things that bothered us is, we got in incredible foul trouble. … I thought they really, really beat us in the paint. … I thought that was the difference. When our post guys went out, it made us become a little bit more perimeter [oriented], and we had to take some challenged shots and the ball didn’t move as much as it did in the first because we didn’t have guys setting screens. Guys weren’t running.”
At the other end of the court, the Deacs got some stellar performances from their starters. Daivien Williamson led the way with 28, but Dallas Walton wasn’t far behind with 20 points and 12 rebounds. Wake’s other three starters combined for 37 with none scoring less than eight.
While Williamson was a thorn in the Pack’s side all game, Walton came alive in the second half as the Pack’s frontcourt was in the midst of its foul troubles.
The Wolfpack wraps up the regular season on Saturday, March 5, with a trip down to Tallahassee, Florida before turning its attention to the ACC Tournament. The Pack’s showdown with the Florida State Seminoles is set for 2 p.m. and will be broadcast on ESPN2.
