No. 22 NC State men’s basketball falls 63-50 at No. 8 Virginia

No. 22 NC State men’s basketball came well short of an upset in Charlottesville, Virginia, falling 63-50 at the hands of the No. 8 Cavaliers.

From early foul trouble to allowing Virginia (18-4, 10-3 ACC) to control the pace of the game, just about nothing went in NC State’s favor. Coming into the matchup as the ninth-best team in the country in fastbreak scoring with 15.83 points per game in that fashion, the Wolfpack (19-6, 9-5 ACC) only managed two points in transition all night — a microcosm of NC State’s problems in its first game as a ranked team since 2019.

Granted, John Paul Jones Arena isn’t an easy place to play, and head coach Tony Bennett has turned the Cavaliers into one of the ACC’s premier programs, but NC State looked like a shell of itself in its most important road game of the season. Coming into the night with an opportunity to close the gap on first place in the conference, the Pack sputtered out of the gate and never found its footing to make a run back into the game.

Jumping out to a 20-9 lead in the first 10 minutes of the night, it was all Virginia early — a trend that wouldn’t cease until the final whistle. Led by 18 points on 50% shooting, five rebounds and a steal from forward Jayden Gardner, the Cavaliers found a way to keep NC State playing at a pace they were comfortable with for the entire 40 minutes. Guard Reece Beekman and forward Kadin Shedrick rounded out Virginia’s double-digit scorers with 15 and 10 points, respectively, combining for four assists and nine rebounds to add to Virginia’s dominance in all facets of the game.

Perhaps the biggest killer for the Wolfpack on the evening was graduate forward DJ Burns falling into foul trouble early, forcing junior forward Ebenezer Dowuona onto the court for more minutes than desired against such a physical Cavalier unit. In 16 minutes of action on the floor, Dowuona looked out of his league, finishing the contest with zero points on 0-4 shooting from the floor, six rebounds and a pair of fouls. While his rebound total tied Burns for second-highest on the team, the clear step back in offensive presence when Burns wasn’t on the court hurt the Pack tremendously.

Adding to the inability to find a way back into the contest, graduate guard Jarkel Joiner had an off night, shooting 2-14 from the floor and 1-7 from downtown to total five points. Like Dowuona, Joiner found areas to be impactful despite his cold hand, adding six boards and a team-high six assists to his stat line. But as a final score of 63-50 suggests, NC State desperately needed his scoring prowess in such an impactful matchup.

Sophomore guard Terquavion Smith and junior guard Casey Morsell made up the list of double-digit scorers for the Wolfpack with 19 and 18 points, respectively. Smith’s green light was on full display, only connecting on seven of his team-high 20 shot attempts from the floor and three of his 11 tries from 3-point range. Morsell had a much more efficient showing against his former team, finishing 6-11 from the floor and 4-9 from deep, adding three rebounds and an assist before fouling out with 50 seconds left to play.

As much as Virginia found ways to keep the Pack down, NC State beat itself with an atrocious shooting performance. Shooting 33.3% on field goals, 29.6% from 3-point land and 57.1% at the free throw line isn’t going to be enough to take down one of the best teams in the country.

Fortunately for NC State, there’s a lot of basketball yet to be played. Getting a chance to work through some kinks in a road matchup against Boston College, who stands as a bottom-five team in the conference, and a worse-than-usual Syracuse squad before returning home for a rowdy matchup against North Carolina at PNC Arena, the Wolfpack has the potential to end the season as a 25-win team.