Wolfpack blown out by UConn, 91-69

It was apparent pretty much from the jump that this was not going to be NC State’s day, and this sort of game has been so utterly few and far between that it’s tough to even know how to react to it.

I didn’t expect NC State to beat UConn in their house, but I did figure on it being a hard-fought game. But State’s poor shooting and sub-standard defense made sure that was not going to be the case.

It can be a straightforward game sometimes: if you shoot poorly while also turning the ball over a bunch, you’re going to be in bad shape. The Pack managed to fight back from a bad first quarter to go into the half trailing by only seven points, but UConn scored 26 points in the third quarter to push its advantage to 19 points, and that was that.

State shot around 47% inside the arc, while UConn was well over 60%. The Huskies also shot 10-29 from beyond the arc, while State was just 6-25. The Pack was going to need a couple players to step up and have big performances, and that never materialized.

Diamond Johnson netted a team-high 13 points but needed 18 shots to get there. Jakia Brown-Turner was good by this game’s standards, shooting 5-11 overall and 5-9 inside the arc. Madison Hayes was good in limited opportunities.

The good was vastly outnumbered by the bad, though. Ah well, so it goes. A disappointing performance, but this team will be fine.