NC State and Virginia Tech set basketball back decades on Saturday
It was a good-looking matchup of ranked ACC teams, but by the end of Saturday’s game NC State and Virginia Tech had set basketball back a few decades.
Amid a full slate of Saturday afternoon college basketball, the matchup of No. 12 Virginia Tech and No. 23 NC State out of the ACC stood out a bit. The Wolfpack had home court, but the Hokies went home with a 47-24 win.
I know what you’re thinking, 47-24 sounds like a halftime score or the score early in the second half if Virginia Tech started on 12-0 run or something. But the two teams combined for 71 points in the game, with 10 combined assists on 25 combined field goal makes, and the numbers are ugly.
The Hokies led 20-14 at halftime, as the two teams combined for the fewest points in a half in the history of PNC Arena. For the game as a whole, the numbers were particularly historic and ugly for N.C. State.
(12)Virginia Tech defeats (23)NC State, 47-24.
— ESPN Stats & Info (@ESPNStatsInfo) February 2, 2019
NC State's 24 points are the fewest by a ranked team in the shot clock era.
NC State's 24 points are their fewest in a game since beating Duke, 12-10, in the ACC Tournament in 1968 - the lowest-scoring game in ACC history.
NC State's 24 points scored were the fewest by a Division 1 team in a conference game since 2008.
— Jon Rothstein (@JonRothstein) February 2, 2019
NC State’s 24 points are the fewest scored by a D-I team in any game this decade.https://t.co/OOv8tn1y7x
— John Gasaway (@JohnGasaway) February 2, 2019
.@BFriedACC looked it up. The fewest points NC State has scored in the shot clock era is 36 against Princeton on Nov. 12, 1997. Wolfpack lost that game 38-36.
— Joe Ovies (@joeovies) February 2, 2019
NC State finished with 24 points against Virginia Tech today.@lebrownlow and I are available for 30 for 30 interviews.
NC State's 24 points are the fewest by an ACC team in the shot-clock era. Georgia Tech had 28 against Virginia in 2015
— Joe Giglio (@giglio_OG) February 2, 2019
But let’s not leave the Hokies out here. Buzz Williams’ squad shot just 35.6 percent (16-for-45) from the floor, including 7-for-21 from beyond the arc, and they actually turned the ball over more than NC State did (12, to 10 for the Wolfpack). NC State made just two 3-pointers in the game, but that didn’t stop them from shooting 28 of them as they went 9-for-54 from the field (16.7 percent). They went 6-for-31 from the floor in the first half, which is bad enough, but it only got worse as they went 3-for-23 after halftime.
The problem for both teams appeared to be not getting to the foul line. N.C. State went just 4-for-6 from the charity stripe, while Virginia Tech went 8-for-13.
Next. 5 candidates to replace Steve Alford at UCLA. dark
Going into Saturday’s game, NC State was third in the ACC in scoring (84.4 points per game), third in field goal percentage (48.4 percent) and fourth in three-point percentage (37.8 percent). So this looks like an aberration, as they never recovered from starting 1-for-17 from the floor and 0-for-11 from beyond the arc. With rival North Carolina coming up on Tuesday night, the Wolfpack will have to shake this one off rather quickly.