NC State battled back from an early deficit to beat Louisville, 94-85, on Tuesday night in the first round of the ACC Tournament played at Capital One Arena.
With the win, the Pack advances to Wednesday's second round where it will face seventh-seed Syracuse. Tipoff against the Orange is scheduled for 7 p.m. and the game will be televised on ESPN2.
Despite leading scorer D.J. Horne missing the game with injury, NC State had five players reach double figures led by
Casey Morsell who scored 25 points.
The 25 points by Morsell were the most in his career against an ACC opponent. The Ft. Washington, Md., native finished the game 5-of-12 from the floor and a perfect 13-of-13 from the foul line. The 13 free throws were the most by an NC State player without a miss in ACC Tournament history. The previous most for an NC State player was Cat Barber who went 12-for-12 for the Pack against Pitt in the 2015 ACC Tournament.
Also reaching double figures for the Pack was
Jayden Taylor who finished with 18 points, eight rebounds and four steals. The eight rebounds were a career-high and the four steals tied a career-high.
Michael O'Connell poured in a season-high 16 points while D.J. Burns, Jr., added 12 points and
Ben Middlebrooks finished with 11.
NC State got off to a slow start in the game as Louisville shot 66.7 percent in the opening 20 minutes. The Cards got off an electric start as they made 10 of their first 11 shots to jump out to a 23-11 lead.
Louisville's lead was still 10 points when NC State went on a 15-4 run to take its first lead of the game on Taylor free throw to make it 35-34 with 4:34 left in the half. Louisville responded with a three-pointer on its next possession to retake the lead and went into the locker room with a 46-45 advantage at the break.
Burns scored on the Pack's first possession of the second half to put NC State in front, 47-46.
NC State would never trail again.
The Pack would build a lead to as many seven points in the first 15 minutes of the second half, but the Cards would not go away, eventually battling back to tie the game at 75 on a Skyy Clark three-pointer with 4:50 to play.
Taylor would respond with a three of his own on the other end and after a Louisville bucket would drain another three-pointer to give NC State an 81-77 lead with 3:28 to go.
Louisville would get the game back within one possession at 83-80, but NC State made nine of its 10 free throws down the stretch to hold off any Louisville comeback attempt.
Clark finished the game with 36 points for Louisville, the most for an NC State opponent this season. He finished the game 12-of-17 from the field, including 7-of-9 from three-point range.
For the game, NC State shot a season-high 40 free throws and also made a season-high 33. The Pack shot 30 of its 40 free throws in the second half as NC State went 25-for-30 from the charity stripe in the final 20 minutes.
https://gopack.com/news/2024/3/12/mens-basketball-pack-advances-in-acc-tournament-with-win-over-louisville 