GREENSBORO, N.C. — In an unusually quiet Greensboro Coliseum, moments before N.C. State tipped off versus Syracuse, Wolfpack Kevin Keatts had a message for everyone.
Keatts looked out at his starting five on the court and shouted “energy.” He repeated it a few more times to drive home the point. It appeared his guys missed the memo, though. The Orange, however, heard him loud and clear.
The Orange, notorious for losing early in the ACC tournament, especially when it’s in Greensboro, came into the day with just three tournament wins the last four years. This time around, Syracuse had the last laugh.
The Orange had more energy and more offense in an 89-68 win over N.C. State. That means Syracuse (16-8), the No. 8 seed, will move on and face Virginia on Thursday. The Wolfpack (13-10) saw its five-game winning streak come to a crashing end.
“I’m proud of these guys,” Keatts said. “It’s hard for me to get mad at these guys because of one bad game in the ACC tournament with the way they played and the way they responded to me all year.”
N.C. State was the hottest team in the ACC heading into Greensboro. But the Orange entered the week with two straight wins over North Carolina and Clemson — teams on track to make the NCAA Tournament. Syracuse continued its hot streak Wednesday, led by Buddy Boeheim, who had 20 points in the first half.
The Wolfpack cut the lead to five points at halftime, and started the second half with four turnovers in their first three possessions. Syracuse, meanwhile, got three straight 3-pointers from Quincy Guerrier, Alan Griffin and Joseph Girard III. Boeheim then got back to scoring, converting a rare four-point play to push the lead to 16 at the 16:27 mark.
“He (Boeheim) was really, really good,” Keatts said. “Especially in the first half. I thought that was the difference and the reason why they had a lead.”
The Wolfpack showed some life, getting consecutive dunks from Dereon Seabron and D.J. Funderburk with just over 13 minutes to go, but the Orange wouldn’t blink, and had an answer on the other end every time. It came in the form of a long 3 from Robert Braswell at the end of the shot clock, or a wide-open dunk by Marek Dolezaj, each basket more deflating than the last.
“Second half, I thought we came out of the locker room with a lot of energy, but we had two bad turnovers at the beginning of the second half and never really — we kind of played catch-up from that point,” Keatts said. “Never really got a flow of the game. I think the first media, they had scored 14 points and we had scored four in the second half, and that’s not a good formula.”
While Boeheim (finished with 27) just missed out on a career-high, N.C. State picked a bad time for its leading scorers to go M.I.A.
Jericole Hellems, who stepped up in the absence of Devon Daniels, and D.J. Funderburk, combined for 21 points on 5-of-16 shooting. Funderburk, perhaps playing in his final game at N.C. State, had one point at the half.
“We have such a small room for error,” Keatts said. “If we don’t have one or two of our main guys play well, then it puts us in a tough situation to win the game.”
The Wolfpack freshmen, the biggest sparks during the five-game streak, struggled in their first ACC tournament appearance.
Seabron, finished with 11. But fellow rookies, and Greensboro natives, Cam Hayes and Shakeel Moore were a combined 5 for 16 from the floor.
“They’ll learn from the good that they did in the game,” Keatts said, “and obviously the bad.”
While it was Boeheim leading the way at the half, Syracuse finished with four players in double figures. The Orange continued to beat N.C. State with the 3. Syracuse made 10 3-point shots in the first meeting on Jan. 31 and nine Feb. 9. The Orange hit 14 from 3 on Wednesday.
“Those guys get hot from behind the line,” N.C. State senior Braxton Beverly said. “When you got people like Buddy and Girard (12) and Griffin (12), they take tough shots and they can hit them. It just seems like they were able to do that against us. I don’t know why it was our matchup, but they seemed to get hot quick and in a hurry.”
While Syracuse keeps its NCAA hopes alive, the Pack can only hope that the work they did at the end of the season was enough to sneak into the NIT.
With the exception of last year when the season was ended due to the coronavirus pandemic, N.C. State has played in the postseason each year under Keatts. That streak, though, might be in jeopardy after a slow start to conference play and a first-round loss in the ACC tournament. The NIT is still a real possibility for this team, but as of Wednesday, Keatts didn’t know what the future holds.
“That would be something we would talk about. I have no idea how that even works these days. I have no idea if it’s an invite tournament. I don’t know how it works. I do know that there are going to be 16 teams,” Keatts said. “I will tell you this: Whatever we decide to do will be in the best interest of our team moving forward, safety protocols, what it looks like, is it an invite tournament. I don’t know how to works.”
