NC State thuds its way to 78-62 loss at Clemson

With the exception of the Arizona game, NC State’s limitations have been pretty apparent against any opponent with a pulse. Now that Markell Johnson is on the shelf, those limitations have been more painfully obvious.

Nothing worked for NC State at the offensive end against Clemson on Saturday, and the result was a lopsided 78-62 defeat. The Wolfpack kept the game close for the majority of the first half, but that was only because Clemson was matching bad offense for bad offense. Once the Tigers started to collect themselves, the game was over.

State was a hideous 23-66 from the field and made only five of its 22 three-point attempts. The Pack averaged 0.83 points per possession, which is just about impossible to overcome—gonna lose a game 99 times out of 100 with that sort of performance.

Al Freeman scored 14 points but needed 19 shots to get there, in the latest installment of his struggle year. Torin Dorn was 1-8, Lavar Batts was 1-7, and Sam Hunt was a non-factor. Braxton Beverly scored 15 on 6-9 shooting but overall the backcourt play was atrocious. Can’t win like that, and there are going to be more days ahead like this, and so it goes.