NC State
12-6, 3-2
#15 UNC-Chapel Hill
13-4, 3-1
Pack Falls To Heels 81-79
1/14/2015 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
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RALEIGH - One play short. The NC State men's basketball team dropped a highly-contested 81-79 to No. 15/16 UNC on Wednesday night at PNC Arena.
Ralston Turner led NC State (12-6, 3-2) with 20 points. Trevor Lacey followed with 19 points including shooting 10-for-10 from the foul line. Kyle Washington also had a strong game, scoring 17 points on 8-for-17 shooting. Abdul-Malik Abu led State with nine rebounds.
State produced a fiery comeback after trailing by 11 with 3:45 remaining in the game. The Pack, behind long-range shooting from Turner and Lacey, went on a 14-4 run to cut the lead to 77-76 in the games final seconds. NC State fouled to extend the game. UNC, likewise, kept fouling in the final seconds holding out to a three-point lead.
With 0.2 seconds left, Abu made a foul shot to make the score 81-79. He intentionally missed his second foul shot, and Cody Martin was able to work his way to the rim for a tip-in but the shot fell just short as time expired.
Gott Said It: "I think that it was another good basketball game, unfortunately for us we ended up on the short end and that's not any fun. I liked our team's effort. I thought our second half effort was amazing. They played hard and played to win. We just came up a few plays short. I thought the difference was the 17 field goals by their three post guys, (Isaiah) Hicks, (Kennedy) Meeks and Brice (Johnson). We've got to be much better defensively inside. It seems like we have been at times but tonight I thought that was the biggest difference.
"I was disappointed at halftime, I didn't think in the first half we had the movement or the quickness. We just seemed to be going slow motion. The second half we came out and played basketball. We were aggressive, we pushed the ball to make baskets, we got down the floor quickly, we helped get great shots and we moved the ball but we didn't do any of that for 40 minutes. We did it for 20 minutes. I'm not taking anything away from North Carolina but I thought we did not play with the energy in the first half with that movement and quickness that we needed to have.
"(In the) second half we showed a lot of toughness and the kids never quit. They executed things terrifically late in the game, just perfectly. They gave us a chance. They actually had a tip on the very last play. It was a pretty good tip to tie the game and send it to overtime. They were definitely some good things and there are things to build on. This young group has to learn 40 minutes, with a high level of intensity is what it's going to take."
Up Next: The Pack will hit the road for contests against Florida State and Miami. NC State will play at FSU Saturday, Jan. 17 at 1:30 p.m. Five days later, the Pack will return to the state of Florida for an 8 p.m. tip at Miami. Both games will be broadcast on the ACC Network. The Pack will return to PNC Arena Sunday, Jan. 25 for a 6:30 p.m. game against No. 12/12 Notre Dame.
