NC State comes up short at Notre Dame, 69-66

NC State didn’t bring its A-game at the offensive end Tuesday night, and the result on the road against a good team was the Pack’s first conference loss of the season. NC State still controls its own destiny in the ACC regular season race but has lost its margin for error.

The Pack was down by nine points heading into the fourth quarter, and like we’ve seen so often from this group, they rallied back to make it a tight finish. State cut a 10-point deficit to two with 1:42 remaining, and an Elissa Cunane three-point play with under a minute to go again cut the margin to one possession.

State had a chance to tie it in the waning seconds but couldn’t come up with the clutch shot. Diamond Johnson missed several threes in the last couple of minutes, putting the cap on what was a rough night for her: 6-23 from the field, 1-10 from three. It might have been a good idea for some of those shots to go elsewhere—her teammates were 4-10 from three—but alas.

NC State has another short turnaround to regroup, which is maybe not the worst thing. The Pack returns home to host Florida State on Thursday.