NC State Rallies From 18-Point Deficit To Beat Texas, 77-74

Box Score

Texas seemed to hold NC State at arm's length for most of the first half, and when they used an 8-0 run to go up 65-47 with a little under 12 minutes left in the second half, it looked like they'd removed whatever suspense had remained in the game up to that point.

Then DeShawn Painter hit a jumper. State got a stop and Scott Wood drilled a three. The teams exchanged empty possessions and then J'Covan Brown picked up his fourth and fifth fouls--the latter was a technical--and gave NC State four free throws, all of which were made. At that point State had cut the 18-point deficit in half, 65-56.

Texas came up empty again, Scott Wood hit another three. Texas got one point at the line, Alex Johnson hit a three. 66-62. Texas turned it over, Lorenzo Brown hit CJ Leslie on a sweet alley oop play. They'd missed on that play in the first half, but it was there. (I believe it was Johnson who misfired on the pass in the first half.) Texas missed another shot, Lorenzo Brown drilled a pair of free throws, and suddenly we were tied at 66.

By the time Lorenzo Brown was finishing a tough shot while drawing a foul with less than three minutes to play, State had built a 75-67 lead. It was like so many halves in reverse. This is not the thing that we do to other teams, it's the thing they always do to us. That was just crazy.

Notes:

-- Look at that free throw rate. NC State took 44 shots from the field and 44 from the line. State hit 75% of those freebies, which obviously was an enormous factor in the game.

-- In the second half, State shot 69.4% (eFG), hitting 3 of 5 three-pointers and 8 of 13 twos. They also went to the line 26 times. The result was a half in which they averaged 1.36 points per possession. Texas, on the other hand, went cold down the stretch and finished with a 42.6 second-half effective field goal percentage. A reversal of the first half but more extreme.

-- DeShawn Painter was hitting jumpers again, so I think we have to start coming to terms with the idea that he can make these 15-17 footers on a regular basis. Looks like hard work paying off for him. He's been really good through these first five games.

-- Calvin's been outstanding in his two games back, and I'm encouraged by his shooting accuracy and the fact that he isn't throwing up a ton of shots every night. He'll definitely reap some benefits from taking 8-9 shots and being more aggressive versus settling for 12-15 shots, if he continues to do that.

-- Didn't get much rebounding from anybody tonight at either end. Didn't help that Howell was limited to 18 minutes, but Texas won the rebounding battle in both halves. But, you know, sometimes there's good to be found in small steps, and unlike many occasions in the past where [Opposing University Of Ill Repute] killed us with 40+% offensive rebounding, we at least limited the Horns to around 35% in each half. That's not good. It's also not a game-changer.