Kevin Keatts on NC State’s loss to Miami: ‘We found a way to lose’
Kevin Keatts wouldn’t compare this latest loss to the Clemson game.
Sure, there were similarities. At Clemson on Tuesday N.C. State led the Tigers by seven with 6:27 remaining, only to fall in overtime. Saturday against Miami the Wolfpack was up by six with 6:18 to play. And for the second straight game, the wheels fell off.
At least at Clemson, State’s offense was sharp. It was the lack of offense against the Hurricanes that led to the 64-59 Miami win.
The Wolfpack dropped its second straight league game, this one more frustrating than the last.
After taking a six-point lead on a Devon Daniels layup, Miami outscored N.C. State 19-8 the rest of the game. Against Clemson the Pack didn’t take care of the ball, against the Hurricanes they couldn’t buy a bucket.
“For whatever reason I didn’t think we were clicking offensively,” Wolfpack head coach Kevin Keatts said. “We just couldn’t get it going. Very seldom does that happen for us in two different halves.”
This season N.C. State has struggled in the second half, which is why all of its ACC games have been decided by five points or less. In this game, though, the Wolfpack couldn’t get in a flow early.
N.C. State missed its first four shots from the floor, but suddenly put together a 7-0 run that put the Wolfpack in front. Devon Daniels scored the first basket of the game for N.C. State at the 17:02 mark and his jumper was followed by a triple from Jericole Hellems and a layup from Thomas Allen, who came off the bench for the first time this season.
That slow start was a foreshadow of the game where Keatts said none of his best players played great.
Thomas Allen, who’s from Garner, had his best game in a Wolfpack uniform, scoring a season-high 14 off the bench. D.J. Funderburk also came off the bench to score 12 and Daniels finished with 11. But it took Daniels a while to get going, scoring just two points in the first half, and Miami took away Funderburk and the post in the second half, forcing the Wolfpack to jack up 3s.
N.C. State shot 7-21 from deep, while Miami refused to settle, driving to the baskets for easy layups in the second half.
Hurricanes brought their own energy against Wolfpack
Leading the Hurricanes’ second-half surge was guard Isaiah Wong, who finished with a game-high 24 points. Thirteen of Wong’s points came in the second half, the majority of those inside the three-point line as Wong attacked the basket. Freshman guard Earl Timberlake chipped in 13 for Miami, 11 in the second half.
The Hurricanes found a formula - deny post play, attack the rim - that worked to their advantage late in the game. It was about more than Xs and Os according to Funderburk.
“They were tougher than us,” Funderburk said. “It is what it is. Sometimes teams come in and they are a little bit more aggressive than you. They came to punch the clock at 12 o’clock and we didn’t, it’s just as simple as that.”
Keatts noted that Miami brought its own energy for the noon start, played in front of a sparse crowd at PNC Arena. With that one intangible already to the Canes’ advantage, State’s self-inflicted breakdowns in crunch time hurt.
“Down the stretch, we missed important stops and we couldn’t convert on offense sometimes,” Funderburk said. “Just mental lapses. Even me, sometimes I forget plays or we may go too fast and not have the right patience or miss an assignment. Just stuff like that.”
Funderburk admitted to missing an assignment that left Matt Cross alone in the corner for an open three. That basket pulled Miami to within one, 51-50, part of the Hurricanes’ late scoring outburst.
A blown assignment from a senior is something Keatts can’t afford if N.C. State wants to stay in the upper half of the league standings. Unfortunately, that was too common throughout the roster.
“I couldn’t get a hot hand,” Keatts said. “It’s a tough game when Manny (Bates) isn’t playing well and Devon (Daniels) isn’t playing well and D.J. (Funderburk) was just OK. We didn’t get any of our seniors to lead our younger guys. When that happens it’s not a great formula to win the game.”
Kevin Keatts talks of team’s struggles, turnovers
Keatts did not say Miami was the tougher team but did feel like the Hurricanes made “tougher plays down the stretch.”
One of those was an offensive rebound and a basket by Timberlake to push the Hurricanes’ lead to three with 23 seconds left.
“Those types of things, the things we needed to do to win the game,” Keatts said.
N.C. State also turned the ball over 16 times for the second straight game and Keatts stated that’s something they “have to figure out.” Twelve of those turnovers came in the first half when State was still trying to find its groove.
“Not that we didn’t have energy,” Keatts said. “We just couldn’t find the rim, offensively, I just don’t know what it was.”
It was quite the different outcome for Miami, a team that’s lost three straight ACC games by two points or less. Unfortunately, it was more of the same for N.C. State, which blew a late lead for the second time this week.
“They found a way to win today and we found a way to lose,” Keatts said. “We have to figure out how to correct that and get back to winning the turnover battle. That’s the thing we have to get better at.”
The next stretch of games for N.C. State includes a trip to Florida State on Wednesday before returning to PNC next Saturday to host Georgia Tech. They then play back-to-back road games at Virginia and North Carolina. Those four teams currently have a combined record of 24-11.
This story was originally published January 9, 2021 at 4:07 PM with the headline "Kevin Keatts on NC State’s loss to Miami: ‘We found a way to lose’."
