NC State rediscovers shooting touch in 83-72 win over Miami

Finally, sweet mercifully finally, the shots were falling for NC State. The Wolfpack put together its best offensive performance since the last time it played Miami and came away with an essential road win against the undermanned Hurricanes. Phew.

It began as another tough night as NC State missed its first three attempts from beyond the arc and Miami built a modest early lead—the first 10 minutes were pretty rough, but from there, the Wolfpack found consistency and began to assert control. A 12-0 run was part of a 31-point outburst during the final 10 minutes of the first half, and the Wolfpack took a 12-point lead into the break.

Miami cooperated with poor shooting, and the Hurricanes also managed to rack up a personal foul and a pair of technicals on one play, giving the Pack six straight free throw attempts to widen the first-half gap.

That happened as State connected on six straight threes, led by Devon Daniels and CJ Bryce, both of whom had some excellent stretches. Bryce finished with 22 points and 11 boards, while Daniels scored 14.

State pushed its lead to 18 in the second half before Miami mounted a run to make things interesting down the stretch, but fortunately, Markell Johnson stepped up with some big plays to help put the Canes away. Markell finished with 19 points and 12 assists against an underwhelming Miami backcourt that was missing both Chris Lykes and Kameron McGusty.

Without those two, the Hurricanes were left with a lineup that lacked both experience and playmaking ability: shooting guard Dejan Vasiljevic, who would ideally find himself slotted into a secondary role, attempted 22 shots, including 14 threes. Miami just didn’t have other options.

Shooting was the difference—in a good way this time. NC State hit 55% of its twos and 40.9% of its threes en route to the victory. Let’s hope this supplies a jolt of confidence that the guys can build on.