LOUISVILLE, Ky. _ N.C. State point guard Markell Johnson strolled onto the court at the KFC Yum! Center in his warmups well before Thursday's game against Louisville.
But Johnson quickly found a seat to watch his teammates. The junior point guard was to miss a third straight game with a back injury, forcing the Pack again to play an ACC game without its floor leader and most dynamic player.
The No. 21 Wolfpack needed him against the No. 23 Cardinals. Louisville, a tough, competitive team under first-year coach Chris Mack, took an 84-77 victory to stretch its ACC winning streak to four straight.
In a game with a lot of ebbs and flows, with well-run offensive sets and awful turnovers, Louisville (14-5, 5-1 ACC) had just enough to win, with five players in double figures.
The Pack's Braxton Beverly, playing before a lot of friends and family from Hazard, Ky., finished with 19 points. But his offensive foul, on a drive with 46.4 seconds left and the Pack trailing 77-75, was a big call and he then fouled the Cards' Ryan McMahon, who hit two free throws.
Torin Dorn had 18 points and C.J. Bryce 15 for the Pack (15-4, 3-3), which hosts Clemson o Saturday in a short turnaround.
It was a tough return game for Pack coach Kevin Keatts, once a Louisville assistant under former coach Rick Pitino. His team played hard for the most part, but was undone by 23 turnovers.
The Cardinals, after leading 42-41 at the half, had a second start to the second half. The Pack scored on just two of its first nine possessions _ a Beverly 3 and put-back by DJ Funderburk _ while the Cards surged.
Louisville led 61-51, only to have the Pack rally. A 3-pointer by Beverly and fast-break score by Eric Lockett ended a 10-0 run and tied the score 61-61.
The Cards spurted ahead again as Dwayne Sutton and Steven Enoch knocked down 3s late in the shot clock. When Khwan Fore popped in a jumper, it was 75-69 and Keatts ordering up a timeout.
When the Pack wasn't turning the ball over and rushing things in the first half, it was making shots. And especially Dorn, who had 14 points.
The Pack did not have a 3-pointer in the first 11 minutes, then started draining shots from the arc after falling behind 20-10. Beverly and Devon Daniels each knocked down a pair and C.J. Bryce another 3 as the Wolfpack put together a 28-12 run for a 38-32 lead, making 10 of 11 shots in the spurt.
Then, more turnovers for N.C. State. Daniels, who had an error-prone game, had a travel, then an offensive foul.
In the final moments of the half, the Pack set up for a final shot, only to have Daniels pick up another offensive foul _ N.C. State's 14th turnover in the half. The Cards converted the Pack mistakes into 21 points in the first half.
Keatts orchestrated the defense in the first half, as he usually does, and the Cards had their problems at times running their sets. Nwora, coming off his 25-point game in the road win at Georgia Tech, missed four of five shots in the opening half, getting six of his eight points at the foul line.
The Pack shot 55.2 percent from the field in the opening half and played most of the half without Funderburk, who was benched most of the period with two fouls.
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