Home court advantage won this one
Game Summary:
NC State started the game well, taking an early 9-5 lead. But Notre Dame’s defense prevented the Pack getting much going inside, so 17 of our 28 shots in the half were 3PT. The Pack scored only 6 points in the paint, to the Irish’s 16. Then our defense got lazy near the end of the half and the Irish took a 10-point lead, just before the half. Marcus Hill hit a 3PT to cut it to 7, ending the half with Notre Dame up 33-26.
Ben Middlebrooks picked up two quick fouls in the first half and only played five minutes. He made up for it in the second half logging 10 points, 3 rebounds, 1 steal and 3 blocked shots to give the Wolfpack some much needed energy. Like the Texas Tech game last season, Big Ben was the difference maker in the second half.
Notre Dame led the second half until the 7:40 mark when, you guessed it, Big Ben hit a 3PT shot to put the Pack up 54-53. The Irish pushed ahead again and got a 7-point lead 63-56 at the 3:39 mark. NC State closed it to 2-points 65-63 at the 1:45 mark and tied it at 65 on a layup by Marcus Hill at 1:07. With 11 seconds left, you guessed it, Big Ben hit a free throw to make it 66-65. Notre Dame called a timeout with 8 seconds left to call a play. Markus Burton missed a jumper to end the game.
Final, NC State 66-65.
Overall Takeaways:
- Apparently we are a 3PT shooting team now. We took 27 3PT shots, 49% of our total field goals. We shot 37% for the game, including 5-10 in the second half. Home rims are the best!
- We rebounded better in this game. Notre Dame had 5 more rebounds (19-14) at the half, and we played them even in the second half (15-15) to end 34-29.
- Points in the paint – The Irish had a 10 point lead at the half (16-6), we did much better in the second half leading 18-12 to finish 28-24.
- Fast break points – The key differentiator in the game was NC State leading 15-2 in fast break points
- NC State protected the ball well again, only 7 turnovers.
Keatts Comments
Individual Highlights
- Marcus Hill led the scoring with 15 points, he shot 6-12, 2-5, 1-1
- Dontrez Styles led the team in rebounding with 7
- Marcus Hill and Breon Pass shared the team lead with 4 assists each
- Big Ben led us in blocks with 3
- Big Ben hit his 4th 3PT shot of his career. He is 3-9 on the season.