Magic goes on for N.C. State
Horne, Diarra lead Wolfpack to 80-67 victory
Oakland may have been the underdog that stole local basketball fans’ hearts with its upset of Kentucky on Thursday at PPG Paints Arena. It’s N.C. State, however, that might be writing the most hefty March Cinderella story Uptown.
The Wolfpack — seeded 11th in the NCAA tournament’s South Region — took down sixth-seeded Texas Tech by an 80-67 margin early Friday morning to run its tournament record this month to 6-0.
Coach Kevin Keatts’ squad won five games in five days last week to take the ACC tournament crown, beating North Carolina — the No. 1 seed in this tournament’s West Region — in the title game. It otherwise would not have made the Big Dance after a mediocre regular season.
Now the Wolfpack is moving on to face the Golden Grizzlies thanks to a stellar performance from Ben Middlebrooks. The 6-foot-10 junior led the way with 21 points on 6-of-8 shooting to go with four rebounds. It was his career high for points after he averaged just 5.5 over the course of the year.
Leading scorer DJ Horne added 16 on the evening, and fellow junior Mohamed Diarra stepped up with 17 and 12 rebounds. The latter averaged just six points entering the night.
Poor shooting from 3-point territory proved to be the undoing for Texas Tech. The Red Raiders hit just 7-of-31 from deep (22.6%), a steep drop off from their 36.5% clip entering this tournament.
That allowed the Wolfpack to pull away in the second half, outscoring Texas Tech, 43-34. Joe Toussaint finished the night as Tech’s top scorer, pouring in 16 points on 5 of 15 from the field.
N.C. State became the third team seeded 11th or lower to win at the arena on Thursday. Oregon — the 11th seed in the Midwest Region — topped South Carolina by an 87-73 margin to join the Wolfpack and Golden Grizzlies in the winners’ circle.
The first half was a backand-forth affair with three ties and nine lead changes. The Wolfpack took a 37-33 advantage to the locker room as Middlebrooks scored five points across the final three minutes and Casey Morsell added a three. Middlebrooks led all scorers with 14 points of 4-of-6 shooting. Joe Toussaint paced the Red Raiders with 13.
Tech’s Darrion Williams cut the deficit to four as his three beat the first half buzzer. It was the second such shot in the four games at the arena Thursday, though it was decidedly less exciting South Carolina’s Ta’Lon Cooper three-quarter court heave in the second game of the day against Oregon.
Up next
N.C. State will now face Oakland on Saturday. The tipoff time is to be announced. The 14th-seeded Golden Grizzlies were the lowest seed to win across all tournament action Thursday.