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NC State Basketball Drops Fourth Straight In SMU Loss: 3 Takeaways

ByKyle Nachtsheim

Jan 26, 2025
NC State Basketball warming upNC State Basketball warming up

NC State basketball continues its slide down the ACC standings, falling to SMU 63-57 on Saturday afternoon.

NC State Basketball returned to the court for the first time in a week, but the crowd at the Lenovo Center saw a familiar ending. For the fourth straight game, the Wolfpack (9-10, 2-6) lost a game by six or less points. Marcus Hill led the Wolfpack with 14 points to add to his 10 or more points scoring streak.

The Mustangs (15-5, 6-3) were led by freshman Samet Yigitoglu with 20 points while Matt Cross notched his fifth double-double of the season with 11 points and 10 boards.

Takeaway #1: 20-7 run in final 8 minutes of first half derailed State momentum

It seemed like the Wolfpack had turned a corner offensively, getting out to an 10-2 run over the five minutes of the game. Then, after the under eight-minute media timeout, a switch seemed to flip in both momentum and shot making.

“[NC State] came out and played really hard defensively and puts us on our heels a little bit,” coach Andy Enfield said during his post-game radio interview. “Then, we settled down and really push the pace a little bit.”

SMU held NC State to 2-for-14 shooting in the final eight minutes, while going on a 15-point run of their own to take control of the game heading into halftime. The Mustangs, on the other hand, only missed four shots in that same time frame and the scoring was evenly distributed between four players.

Takeaway #2: Three-point woes continuing to hamper NC State

Prior to the game against SMU, the Wolfpack had two of their last three games shooting under 25% from beyond the arc. The Mustangs added to that misery, forcing NC State to shoot 17% on 24 attempts from downtown.

Including going o-for-10 against Coastal Carolina in November, this is the sixth game shooting under 25%. Last season after 19 games, the Wolfpack only shot under 25% four times.

“We’re not shooting the ball well at all,” said coach Kevin Keatts. “I thought we had some really good looks. And for whatever reason, we’re not making those.”

This is the worst start after 19 games for the Wolfpack since the 2021-22 season, when a loss to Virginia Tech dropped them to 9-10. Even in that season, the Wolfpack only had five games of shooting 25% or less from three-point land. With the expansion to 18 teams this season, the bottom three teams will not qualify for the ACC Tournament.

Keatts did talk about in several post-game press conferences about is they were able to get to 70 points, they would have a better chance to win. Since he took over the program in 2017-18, the Wolfpack have won 74.2% of games when they scored over 70 points (a record of 135-47). That includes a 7-1 record this season.

Takeaway #3: Prevented State to score on turnovers

The Mustangs had 15 turnovers on the afternoon, but transition defense was able to hold the Wolfpack to only eight fast break points off those turnovers. In their last seven games, they had turned the ball over more than 10 times on five different occasions.

The Mustangs held NC State to 3-of-13 shooting after they turned the ball over, even forcing two turnovers of their own. Despite turning over the ball more than the Wolfpack, they improve to 5-3 on the season in games where they record more turnovers.

This is the 12th game where the Mustangs held their opponent to under 10 fast break points, improving to 10-2 on the season in that category.

Next up for NC State basketball (9-10, 2-6): at No. 2 Duke (17-2, 9-0) – Jan. 27 at 8:30 p.m. EST

Next up for SMU basketball (15-5, 6-3): vs. California (10-9, 3-5) – Jan. 29 at 9 p.m. EST

By Kyle Nachtsheim