The NC State men's basketball made a valiant second half comeback, overcoming a 14-point deficit to force overtime, but fell to Virginia in the extra five minutes, 59-53, Wednesday night inside John Paul Jones Arena.
The Pack trailed 35-21 early in the second half and still was down 37-25 with under 12 minutes to play when NC State started its comeback.
Casey Morsell, nailed a three-pointer off an in-bounds play, the Pack's first made three of the game to cut the deficit to nine and NC State scored two more buckets in quick succession to cut the deficit to five with 9:14 remaining.
After a Virginia three to push the advantage back to eight at 40-32, the Pack responded with a 9-0 run taking its first lead since it was 6-5 on a
Michael O'Connell jumper with 4:27 left.
UVA went on a mini 7-2 run to take a 47-43 lead with 2:21 to go, but the Pack would not let the Cavaliers score again.
Trailing 47-45 with under 10 seconds to play, O'Connell tipped in a
DJ Burns, Jr., miss to the game at 47 and send the game to overtime.
UVA scored the first six points of the extra period and while the Pack was able to cut it to a one possession on two different occasions in the final two minutes, it could never catch up to the Cavaliers.
Morsell led the Pack with 13 points and three steals. Burns added 11 points and O'Connell finished with 10 points.
Mohamed Diarra led the Pack in rebounding for the fourth straight game with eight boards.
It did not look like overtime was in the future in the first half as the Pack shot just 25 percent in the opening period and scored a season-low 15 points in the first 20 minutes.
Despite never getting it going offensively in the first half, the Pack found itself down just 14-12 with 8:28 to play in the opening period, but UVA closed the half on a 13-3 run to take a 27-15 lead into the halftime break.
Virginia had 13 offensive rebounds in the first 20 minutes on its way to 20 on the night. The 20 offensive rebounds were the most by an NC State opponent this season.
The Cavaliers ended the game with a +22 rebounding margin on the Pack.
Ryan Dunn led the five Hoos with a double-double of 13 points and 12 rebounds.
NC State is back in action Saturday night when it plays at Syracuse. Tipoff at the JMA Wireless Dome is scheduled for 7 p.m. and the game will be televised on the ACC Network.
https://gopack.com/news/2024/1/24/mens-basketball-pack-falls-to-uva-in-overtime