N.C. State Basketball: Virginia win a huge tournament resume boost
By Luke Tucker
N.C. State knocked off Virginia 53-51 on Monday night in a game that came down to the wire.
For the first time in John Paul Jones Arena, N.C. State took down Virginia on Monday night. The game was very much back-and-forth throughout the first half before the Wolfpack opened up an 11-point lead with just under 14 minutes to play. Over the next 10 minutes, though, N.C. State failed to score a single point, and trailed by four with less than four minutes to go. State would miss just one field goal in the final four minutes of the contest, and closed the game on an 11-5 run to win by two. The victory was the Wolfpack’s first in Charlottesville since 2005, and marked the first regular-season win over the Cavaliers in more than 10 years.
Despite being outrebounded 38-23, the Wolfpack were able to get away with a win in large part due to points off turnovers. N.C. State scored nearly a quarter of their points off of Virginia turnovers, while limiting themselves to just five total turnovers throughout the entire game. To aid them further, the Pack made five second-half threes, two of which came during the run to retake the lead in the closing minutes.
The Wolfpack won despite having big men Manny Bates (neck) and Pat Andree (ankle) out with injuries.
In their first game without Manny Bates and Pat Andree, N.C. State was beaten badly on the glass on Monday night. As noted earlier, the Wolfpack was outrebounded by 15, leading them to give up twice as many second-chance points as they scored. The absence of Bates, who is seven-feet tall and one of the leading shot-blockers in the country, didn’t go unnoticed. The freshman from Fayetteville had started all 18 games prior to the Virginia game, while blocking nearly three shots per contest. On the offensive end, State missed another big man in Andree. The 6’8” graduate transfer is perhaps the team’s best shooter, and in a game where the Wolfpack failed to make a single three over the first 21 minutes, his presence would’ve provided a much-needed spark from deep.
With Bates and Andree out, it was DJ Funderburk who picked up the slack down low. Funderburk finished the night with 14 points and five rebounds on 6-of-8 shooting, despite fouling out with nearly seven minutes to play. Monday’s contest marked his eighth double-figure performance in a row, and his 14th in 17 games this season. Thanks to a silky shooting stroke and the ability to get offensive rebounds and finish inside, Funderburk is playing his way to becoming an intriguing NBA prospect.
A second key contributor for the Wolfpack versus Virginia was CJ Bryce. After suffering a concussion right before the new year, the senior guard returned to the floor two games ago against Miami, and has played an important role down the stretch in wins over Clemson and then the Cavaliers on Monday night. In fact, it was Bryce who made what ended up being a game-sealing jumper with 27 seconds left to knock off the defending champs.
Following the win over Virginia, N.C. State rose in both ESPN’s BPI, as well as the NCAA’s NET Rankings–two tools used to select the tournament field.
After beating the Cavaliers on their home court, N.C. State rose to 33rd in ESPN’s BPI, and 45th in the NET Rankings. The selection committee uses both of those two metrics in determining the NCAA Tournament field, and could play a key role in deciding the Wolfpack’s postseason fate. Advanced computer metrics aside, the road win at Virginia gives State a pleasing mark on the basic eye test.
Monday’s victory is without a doubt the Wolfpack’s most impressive of the season, and the fact that they did it without two of their bigs and without much production from Markell Johnson shows just how dangerous this team can be. The win over Virginia puts the Wolfpack in fourth place in the ACC, and only a half-game behind Duke. In a wide-open race for the ACC, this could be N.C. State’s year to not only make a run in the conference, but also in the national landscape.