Before we start, it is important to say this: 23rd-ranked NC State is a good basketball team on the offensive end. Coming into Saturday afternoon, the fast-paced Wolfpack were 22nd in adjusted offensive efficiency on KenPom and 14th nationally in points per game, dropping 84.4 points per game a night. The only Power 5 schools that score more on the average night are North Carolina, Duke, and Tennessee.
However, during their matchup against No. 12 Virginia Tech on Saturday afternoon, the Wolfpack had themselves a bad day. It was something else: NC State could not defend its home court against the Hokies, falling 47-24.
Your read that right, the Wolfpack scored 24 points on the afternoon. They had 14 at the half, then came out and scored 10 points in the game’s final 20 minutes. Virginia Tech is a solid defensive team — 49th in adjusted defensive efficiency in KenPom — but this was still a historically off day for NC State, which entered the day as one of the best shooting teams in the sport, ranking 28th nationally in effective field goal percentage.
The Wolfpack, however, just could not hit shots at all. They went 9-for-54 from the field and 2-for-28 from three. Standout guard Torin Dorn scored five points on 2-for-7 shooting, and the leading scorer on the afternoon, C.J. Bryce, dropped seven points on 3-for-13 shooting. The roughest afternoon went to Braxton Beverly, who scored no points and missed all 12 of his shot attempts.
There are a whole bunch of ways this game ended up being the fewest points scored by a team in various circumstances. They are as follows:
NC State's 24 points scored were the fewest by a Division 1 team in a conference game since 2008.
— Jon Rothstein (@JonRothstein) February 2, 2019
NC State’s 24 points are the fewest scored by a D-I team in any game this decade.https://t.co/OOv8tn1y7x
— John Gasaway (@JohnGasaway) February 2, 2019
And one more from @ESPNStatsInfo … NC State’s 24 points is the lowest output by a ranked team in the shot clock era.
— 💫🅰️♈️🆔 (@ADavidHaleJoint) February 2, 2019
Final: Virginia Tech 47, NC State 24
Fewest points by NC State since a 12-10 ACC tournament win over Duke in 1968https://t.co/G4ODSFemtT
— Joe Giglio (@giglio_OG) February 2, 2019
(As an aside, if you know where I can find film for that 12-10 game against Duke, please get in touch because I’d love to watch it once a week for the rest of my life.)
The good news is that NC State is a solid basketball team, so this one can be chalked up to one heck of a bad day above everything else. The bad news is that this is a game that no one at the school will ever forget, and while they’ll have a chance to make up for it with a good performance during their next game Tuesday, it won’t be easy, as the Wolfpack have to travel to Chapel Hill to take on the ninth-ranked Tar Heels.
