A jumper by
DJ Horne with less than then seconds allowed the NC State men's basketball team to defeat Clemson, 78-77, Saturday evening in Littlejohn Coliseum.
Horne led the Pack with 27 points to record his fifth consecutive 20+ point performance and 10th of the season.
Clemson led 77-73 with one minute to play when
Michael O'Connell drove the lane and had a tough finish to cut the deficit in half with 50 seconds to play. On the ensuing possession,
Mohamed Diarra stole the ball from Clemson's Joe Girard and was fouled. He made the front end of a one-and-one, missed the second, but on the rebound,
Casey Morsell reached in and tied up PJ Hall to force a jump ball.
After two timeouts, the Pack found Horne on a curl and he drove in the lane and finished a tear drop over Clemson to provide the winning points.
DJ Burns, Jr. added 14 points and a team-high four assists before fouling out.
Diarra added 11 points and a game-high nine rebounds while also registering a career-best three steals.
Jayden Taylor contributed 12 points off the bench in the win.
Despite the Tigers jumping out to a 10-6 lead through the first media timeout, the Wolfpack managed to regroup and go on a 13-5 run to take the lead and led the rest of the opening 20 minutes.
The Wolfpack went on a 28-17 scoring run that lasted over 12 minutes. The Tigers managed to slow the Pack and go on a 6-0 scoring in the last 60 seconds of the half to minimize the deficit to four heading into the locker room (39-35).
Seven members of the Wolfpack roster scored in the first half with Horne leading the way with 11 points.
Clemson came out of the locker room hot, recording a 14-0 run through the first three minutes of the second half to take the lead. Burns put an end to the Wolfpack scoring drought by making a jumper with 15:34 to go.
The Tigers eventually jumped out to a 12 point lead with less than 10 minutes to play. NC State responded with a 13-4 run that was highlighted by three made three-pointers to minimize the deficit to three with 6:52 left.
The Pack finally managed to catch up with 3:32 to play on a three-pointer by Horne to knot the game at 71.
Joe Girard led Clemson with 23 points, 17 coming in the second half, while PJ Hall added 18 points.
NC State is back in action Tuesday evening when it hosts Syracuse. Tipoff at PNC Arena is scheduled for 7 p.m. and the game will be televised on ESPN2.
https://gopack.com/news/2024/2/17/mens-basketball-last-second-bucket-pushes-pack-past-tigers