NC State improves to 8-2 with 88-69 victory over UMKC

That was not the most ideal second half for NC State on Saturday afternoon, but it’ll work. The Wolfpack built a 23-point halftime lead thanks to good shooting and an impressive collective effort, and that was plenty of cushion to fend off UMKC, 88-69.

Torin Dorn had himself a heck of an afternoon, finishing with 22 points on 9-14 shooting to go with 17 rebounds. Dorn made eight of his nine two-point attempts and snagged six offensive boards against the overmatched Kangaroos defense.

UMKC finished the day only 5-27 from three-point range, which limited its ability to rally in the second half, though rally it did on multiple occasions. Fortunately, State did not mess around too much, though that was a disappointing defensive effort over the final 20 minutes. State also went a bit cold from the field in the second half.

NC State got little from Al Freeman or Sam Hunt, but Markell Johnson and Braxton Beverly had solid games offensively to complement Dorn’s big afternoon. State was just too big and too much better than UMKC for the lacking production from Freeman and Hunt to really matter.

Also, Markell did this:

Wise move to duck out of the way at the last second, son.

UMKC perhaps could have made the finish more interesting if it had been hitting from outside, but today that was not in the cards. We will take it and move on.