A brutal stretch early in the second half ruined the night for the Pack, as they fell to No. 9 North Carolina, 79-70 Saturday afternoon in Chapel Hill. The loss dropped State’s conference record to .500 and 9-9. And there’s no rest for the weary, as next up is a game versus No. 10 Duke on Monday night.
Casey Morsell made a jumper to open the scoring after halftime, which extended State’s lead to 10 at 47-37. But after that was a stretch of ineptitude that was hard to believe. The Pack missed their next 15 shots and also had five turnovers before they scored again. And they also missed four free throws in this stretch. And that’s how a 10-point lead turned into a 13-point deficit.
State rallied back to within five points after Michael O’Connell hit two free throws with 2:49 remaining. But they missed their final three shots and were unable to get any closer the rest of the way.
The first game this year against the Tar Heels was a 13-point loss, due mostly to State’s inability to hit shots. They finished that game hitting just 27.3% of their shots, including 2-20 from behind the arc. The first half of Saturday’s game was the complete opposite, as State shot a blistering 58% from the floor, including 7-11 from 3-point land. UNC also had a good opening half, as they hit 54% of their shots, along with going 9-10 from the line. It was State’s 3-point attack versus Carolina’s free throw advantage, as the visitors did not attempt a free throw in the opening 20 minutes.
There was no chance that State was going to continue to hit shots in the second half the way they did in the first. But 15 consecutive misses was just a shock. Equally surprising was that coach Kevin Keatts didn’t call a timeout to settle his team down until over 10 minutes elapsed in the second half, at a point where the Pack was down 10 points.
Jayden Taylor came off the bench to lead State in scoring with 22 points. He went 5-7 behind the arc and 5-6 from the line. DJ Horne added 20 but none after a layup with 5:17 remaining. Keatts played Horne for 39 minutes and while State desperately needs his scoring on the floor as much as possible, they also need him not to be out of gas down the stretch. Keatts needs to steal him some minutes on the bench around the TV timeouts.
DJ Burns and Morsell were mostly non-factors, as they combined to shoot 7-19 and committed nine fouls, with Morsell fouling out.
Overall, it was a better effort than the first time against the Tar Heels, when they lost by 13 at home. There was better defense in the first game but much better offense in the second. Carolina’s a better team and for State to win, they need a much-better effort from Burns and Morsell, two of their alleged stars.
And a better game from their coach wouldn’t hurt, either.