NC State can’t get stops down the stretch and loses to FSU, 83-81

At this point it feels like NC State has tried like every possible combination of ways to win without actually winning that we’re in the twilight zone. Yesterday, the Pack got a near-perfect shooting effort from Dereon Seabron while Terquavion Smith went off from beyond the arc and the team shot 44% from three, and still that wasn’t enough.

Once again the Wolfpack took a lead into the final 10 minutes, and once again it could not get the stops it needed to win the game. The Pack is down to 205th in defensive efficiency after giving up 1.17 points per possession to the Seminoles. That’s unfortunate.

NC State is gonna need an opponent to just cooperate by missing open looks, and so far that is not happening. (But it will ... eventually!) Miami scored 31 points over the final 10 minutes of regulation; yesterday, FSU scored 27. Not sure what feasible things there are for the Pack to do about that.

There’s no escaping the team’s limitations and a roster like FSU’s tends to really emphasize some of those limitations, but still it’s frustrating, especially when it feels like we’re re-living the exact same loss over and over.