Offensive boost lifts Tech past N.C. State

Yellow Jackets are 3-2 in ACC play for first time since 2009-10 season.

RALEIGH, N.C. — There is increasingly less reason to respond to Georgia Tech wins with confusion or bemusement.

Tech soundly defeated NC State on Sunday night, an 86-76 result in which the Yellow Jackets handled a team that was in a bit of a desperate state. Winners already over three teams with NCAA tournament aspirations – Virginia Commonwealth, North Carolina and Clemson — Tech notched a fourth with their win in PNC Arena.

Tech (11-6 overall, 3-2) showed better effort and tough defense, and Sunday night played at their offensive peak. The Jackets have not been 3-2 after five games in ACC play since the 2009-10 season, the last time they went to

the NCAA tournament. N.C. State (12-6, 1-4) has lost three games in a row.

“It was just a great team win,” coach Josh Pastner said. “We played as a team.”

In a game featuring two of the best freshmen in the ACC, Tech guard Josh Okogie cranked out 27 points with no turnovers. N.C. State point guard Dennis Smith Jr., the ACC’s leader in assists and steals, went for 31.

Where game was won

The Jackets began to put the game away with a 7-0 run early in the second half that put them up 54-47 and caused Wolfpack coach Mark Gottfried to burn a timeout.

Guard Tadric Jackson drove for a tough layup. Aggressively looking for his shot, forward Quinton Stephens hit a 3 on a feed from guard Josh Heath.

After center Ben Lammers blocked Terry Henderson at the rim, the Jackets ran a break that concluded with guard Corey Heyward making a tough layup in traffic at the 14:48 mark, his first basket since the Georgia game on Dec. 20.

The Jackets led the rest of the way.

High-octane offense

The Jackets played their best offensive game of the season, finishing with a season-high for points and shooting 49.2 percent from the field.

The rate was well above their rate in their first four ACC games (39.3 percent). They dropped 10 3-pointers on 16 tries, by far their best performance of the season and an absurd departure from the 22.2 percent they had shot in four ACC games. Tech had 24 assists on 31 field goals.

They put the game away by scoring on nine consecutive possessions in the second half, playing with poise and working for open shots.

It was the same team that has at times struggled to crack 60, one that coach Josh Pastner joked that it was necessary “to thank the basketball gods” if they could hit 70 points.

N.C. State fizzles

The Wolfpack continued to confound. A team widely expected to make the NCAA Tournament, N.C. State has dropped three games in a row, the past two against the teams picked to finish 14th (Tech) and 15th (Boston College) in the ACC.

About all the Wolfpack had going for them Sunday was sensational freshman point guard Dennis Smith Jr., who gobbled up a careerhigh 31 points. The Wolfpack shot 40.6 percent from the field, increasing familiar territory for a team that has also scored 85 or more points eight times.

Stephens’ big game

A game after scoring a season-high 16 against Clemson, forward Quinton Stephens aggressively looked for his shot again and finished with 22 points with 7-for-14 shooting from the field. For Stephens, who has struggled throughout his career with consistency, it’s his highest two-game total of his career by (28 points).

Tech has depended upon Stephens for scoring punch, struggling when he either hasn’t shot well or aggressively looked to score. Going into the game, Tech was 8-2 when he scored 10 or more, 2-4 when he was held to nine or fewer.

Perhaps the defining moment arrived midway through the second half. On a break, he pulled up at the left wing and confidently stroked in a 3-pointer, looking nothing like a player who came into the game shooting 27.9 percent from 3-point range.

What’s next

Tech stays on the road with a Wednesday game at Virginia Tech and Saturday at Virginia.