The final regular-season home game of the first season at McCamish Pavilion was not a rousing sendoff. It was more like a clumpy exit.
In a game distinguished by offense that was lackadaisical in the first half and errant in the second, the Yellow Jackets fell 70-57 to N.C. State Sunday evening on senior night.
Tech turned the ball over 10 times in the first half (with 15 for the game) and then made of 10 of 35 field-goal attempts in the second half, not enough when matched against one of the most efficient offenses in the country.
“We just struggled against their defense at every position,” said coach Brian Gregory.
Before a sellout crowd ready to celebrate the season, the Jackets fell to 15-13 overall and 5-11 in the ACC. Heading into the final week of the regular season, they are in a four-way tie for eighth place in the league with Clemson, Wake Forest and Boston College. The Jackets play their final two regular-season games at Miami Wednesday and at Boston College Saturday.
N.C. State (21-8, 10-6) swept Tech for the first time since the 2008-09 season.
Tech’s swerving ride through the ACC might be encapsulated in the past three games – its worst loss of the season last Sunday at Virginia, perhaps its best offensive game of the year in a win over Maryland on Wednesday and then Sunday’s dud. Tech has not won back-to-back ACC games in Gregory’s two-season tenure.
“One of the hardest things to do in this process is to be consistent and to constantly build on stuff, and I think this season kind of shows it, where you show flashes or you play a whole game and you think, O.K., now you’ve got it, but you don’t,” Gregory said. “Because it’s just not who we are yet. It’s who we can be, but it’s not who we are.”
Tech’s 10 first-half turnovers in 34 possessions turned into 14 points for the Wolfpack, who took a 28-14 lead at the 7:37 mark of the first half. Seven of the 10 took place in an 11-possession span, in which the Jackets went from leading 10-8 to trailing 22-12.
"They were just playing harder," guard Mfon Udofia said. "There was no trick to it. Those guys were just playing harder."
A 13-2 Jackets run in which five different players scored helped close the gap to three points at halftime.
The Jackets took better care of the ball in the second half, which enabled them to stay in the game. However, Tech had eight possessions in which it could have either tied or taken the lead and went 0-for-8. After its last failed opportunity, in which guard Jason Morris missed a jumper and forward Robert Carter was called for a foul on the rebound at the 12:22 mark, the Wolfpack went on a 5-0 run to take a 48-41 lead.
Tech again wormed its way back into the game at 51-49 on a putback by forward Marcus Georges-Hunt, but N.C. State responded by scoring the next seven points, taking a 58-49 lead with 4:44 to play on free throws by Rodney Purvis.
“We weren’t taking the best shots we could,” center Daniel Miller said. “We were taking shots early in the shot clock, we weren’t running plays. We did it to ourselves.”
With Tech’s offense running cold in the second half, it was too great a margin to mount another charge.
Tech finished with no scorers in double figures for the second time this season. Udofia led with nine points on 3-for-10 shooting. Tech shot 34.4 percent from the field, its second lowest rate of the ACC season.
Defensively, Tech held N.C. State to 42.9 percent shooting from the field, including 1-for-11 from 3-point range. However, the Wolfpack took 30 free throws (making 21) to Tech’s 12, of which it made nine.
It was the final home game for seniors Udofia and Pierre Jordan, who were honored prior to the game. Gregory said the two seniors had a positive impact on the program and the full effect of it will not be realized until later.
Said Gregory, “They were part of a cultural change and they’ve been a key component of that, sticking with it when things weren’t great.”
