Wolfpack hangs on to knock off #19 Clemson 78-77

NC State knocked of their third straight Top-25 team, squeaking out a win over the #19 Tigers 78-77.

With about 3 and a half minutes to play, it looked as if State was going to run away with this one, but Clemson wasn’t done. They hit nearly every shot they took down the stretch and NC State was close to falling apart. They missed FTs, they turned it over, and they fouled a 3 point shooter with .2 seconds left and up 3.

Gabe DeVoe had 3 FTs with next to no time on the clock. He had to hit all 3. to send it into overtime. After knocking down the first 2, Kevin Keatts iced him with his final timeout.

Turned out, it worked. DeVoe clanked the last one, sending NC State to victory.

The stressful finish to this game is going to dominate the conversation, but the real story was the fact that NC State played an amazing basketball game.

Omer Yurtseven was insane. He scored a career-high 29 points on 12-18 shooting and 5-6 from 3 point range. He also pitched in 4 blocks.

As a team, NC State shot 42% from the floor and 48% from 3 point range. They shared the ball well, finishing with 15 assists on 28 FGs. And while did get outrebounded 43-32, they turned Clemson over 17 times, while only giving it away 4 times themselves.

Al Freeman finished with 14 points (though it took him 16 shots to do it) and had his second consecutive 5 assist game.

This win should have people taking the Wolfpack a little more seriously. They’ve beaten the #2 team twice and now have knocked off the #19 team. With Markell Johnson set to return next time out, Keatts group looks to continue to prove the doubters wrong.

Next up, NC State heads to #3 UVA at Sunday at 3pm on ESPNU.