NC State 87, Georgia Tech 78

Box Score

Georgia Tech scored 1.13 points per possession today, which is their third-best mark of the season (behind 1.24 vs. Jacksonville, 1.17 vs. Michigan State).

Both teams shot well in the first twenty minutes; the difference was that Georgia Tech couldn't sustain their hot shooting, while NC State could. Tech declined from 69.6% (effective field goal percentage) shooting in the first to 44.1% in the second. State, on the other hand, improved from 55.4% to 79.2%.

Take a look at how efficient Tech's key players were:

PlayerSeason O RtgO Rtg vs. NCSUD'Andre Bell91117Anthony Morrow121120Jeremis Smith108107Zam Fredrick8793Ra'Sean Dickey97109Lewis Clinch92128
Clinch and Dickey were excellent off of the bench, and even Zam Fredrick played well relative to his season numbers. Dickey's O Rtg would have been much higher but for turnovers. Fredrick was surprisingly steady with the ball and had a turnover rate of just 12.7% for the game (season turnover rate = 31.7%).

Side note: I'm getting more and more concerned about NC State's ability to force turnovers. For whatever reason--and on first inspection, it appears to have little to do with Julius Hodge--this year's team hasn't been as successful at forcing turnovers as it was last season. We ranked 79th in opponents' TO% in 2005 but have slipped to 204th this season. This puts a little more pressure on our halfcourt defense, though fortunately it has been up to the challenge. I'm probably overreacting a bit, but this is something to keep an eye on.

On the plus side, we did a good job of keeping Georgia Tech from grabbing too many offensive rebounds. And despite the issues with causing turnovers, we still committed fewer of them than Georgia Tech.