Hot-shooting Wolfpack clobbers Virginia, 77-63

By Scott Ratcliffe

The nets were scorching Saturday in Raleigh, as NC State used the long ball early and often to hammer Virginia, 77-63. The Cavaliers (11-8, 5-4 ACC) dropped their fourth road contest of the season and missed an opportunity to sit just a half-game out of first place in the conference standings.

The Wolfpack (10-10, 3-6) didn’t get a ton of production from sophomore star guard Dereon Seabron, who came into the game ranked third in the ACC in scoring at just under 20 points a game.

It turns out they didn’t necessarily need Seabron’s usual scoring output, as State freshman sharpshooter Terquavion Smith and senior forward Jericole Hellems — each who averaged 14 a game themselves — picked up the slack, predominantly from long range.

Those two combined for 41 points and hit nine of State’s 12 3-pointers, as Virginia’s 11-game win streak at PNC Arena came to an end. Virginia had taken 13 of the last 14 regular-season meetings against the Wolfpack, including seven in a row in Raleigh.

It was a long day for Tony Bennett’s Cavaliers, however, who missed 10 of their first 14 shots of the second half after already trailing by double digits at halftime.

State made 10 of its last 12 shots of the opening 20 minutes and ended the half on a 25-6 run, and then scored 10 of the first 13 points to start the second half and build an 18-point lead, 53-35, by the under-16 timeout, and from there, it was all Wolfpack.

UVA finished the afternoon shooting 42 percent (23 of 55) and 59 percent from 3-point land (10 of 17), winning the rebounding battle, 28-25.

Armaan Franklin led the Hoos with 14 points and a team-high 4 triples in the losing effort. Jayden Gardner had 13 points and Reece Beekman added 12, with Kadin Shedrick and Kody Stattmann each chipping in with 8 apiece.

The Wolfpack led by as many as 21 and shot 60 percent (30 for 50) on the day, including 55 percent (12 for 22) from long distance, and held a 34-16 advantage in the paint. Hellems led all scorers with 21 points, while Smith poured in 20 and Seabron wound up with 13.

FIRST HALF

UVA led 8-4 coming out of the game’s first media timeout before Smith caught fire from the perimeter, sinking three long balls as a 3-point shootout broke out.

The Cavaliers countered with a pair of triples each from Franklin and Kihei Clark and got 8 early points from Gardner to lead 24-18 by the 9:29 mark, as the Hoos connected on 10 of their first 14 shots from the field.

State turned up the pressure defensively and scored 11 unanswered — including a pokeaway steal and score by former Wahoo Casey Morsell, who finished with 12 points against his former team — as Virginia hit a cold spurt, missing five in a row until Franklin knotted it up with his third 3-pointer of the half.

Hellems answered with his third from downtown, as the Wolfpack held a 32-29 edge with 3:55 left. Smith knocked down his fourth triple, then Hellems followed, capping another 11-0 run to stretch the State lead to double digits, 40-29, with two minutes to go. As Bennett pointed out afterwards, several of State’s threes were well contested, but several could have been defended much better.

“Some of their shots were really tough, contested fallaways, and they hit ’em,” said the coach, “but then when they hit a couple of those, there was too many in that first half where, okay, we knew that and we gave them a little too much space. I mean, press up into them, make them put it on the floor, make the shot even harder.”

Gardner stopped the onslaught with a three-point play with 22 seconds showing, but Hellems drained a step-back 3, his fifth, to beat the buzzer, and the Hoos trailed, 43-32, at the break, despite shooting 50 percent overall (13 for 26) and an eye-popping 71 percent (5 for 7) from downtown.

The Wolfpack shot a blazing 65 percent (17 of 26) in the half, converting on 9 of 14 (64 percent) from beyond the arc.

Beekman did a solid job defensively on Seabron, limiting him to 4 points on 2-of-2 shooting in the half, but Smith and Hellems combined for 31 points and all the damage from 3-point land.

Box Score

Team Notes

• Virginia fell to 11-8, 5-4 ACC
• UVA is 3-4 on the road
• The loss ended UVA’s 11-game winning streak at PNC Arena
• NC State’s 77 points were its most vs. UVA since scoring 79 in the ACC Tournament on March 9, 2007
• NC State 12 3-pointers marked a season high vs. Virginia
• NC State’s nine first half 3-pointers were most in any half vs. UVA this season
• NC State’s 60 percent field goal shooting marked a season high vs. Virginia
• NC State’s 43 first-half points were second most against UVA in any half
• UVA led 26-18 before NC State went on an 11-0 run to gain a 29-26 lead
• NC State shot 65.4% in the first half marking a season high vs. UVA
• NC State’s largest lead was 21 points (72-51 at 6:19)
• UVA forced one shot clock violation (21 in 2021-22)
• UVA shot a season-high 58.8 percent from 3-point range (10 of 17)
• UVA’s 10 3-pointers marked a season high

Series Notes

• Virginia is 68-84 all-time vs. NC State in the series that dates back to 1912-13
• The loss ended UVA’s seven-game road winning streak in the series
• Tony Bennett is 14-4 vs. NC State as head coach at Virginia.

Player Notes

• Double Figure Scorers: Armaan Franklin (14), Jayden Gardner (13), Reece Beekman (12)
• Gardner reached double figures for the 14th time (88th career)
• Franklin reached double figures for the 13th time (27th career)
• Beekman reached double figures for the seventh time (10th career)
• ACC steals leader Reece Beekman had three steals
• Beekman has a nine-game steal streak
• Kadin Shedrick (3 blocks) had his 15th multi-block game
• Shedrick’s 51 blocks rank 10th on UVA’s single-season blocks list
• Shedrick has three or more blocks in 10 games
• Shedrick has an eight-game block streak
• Shedrick has at least one block in 18 of 19 games
• Kody Stattmann matched a career best with a pair of 3-pointers

UP NEXT

The Hoos are back at it Monday night at JPJ against Louisville, with a 7-p.m. tipoff (ESPN). Beekman said the Hoos, which haven’t lost back-to-back games all season, will be ready for the Cardinals.

“When we do have lapses like this,” said Beekman, “we come back and we fix ’em, and I think we’ll end up being more prepared, so when we look at film we’ll see the mistakes we made, and just ways we can fix it and be ready for Louisville.”