NC State 52 Ole Miss 72: Box Score (with notes)

NC State’s Men’s Basketball team lost it’s second straight game tonight, losing 52-72 on the road at Ole Miss in the inaugural ACC/SEC Challenge. Below is the Box Score with some notes below.

Notes

• Ben Middlebrooks posted a double-double, with 13 points and 12 boards. To be honest, Middlebrooks was the only bright spot in this game.
• Casey Morsell was the only other player to score in double figures (12 points), but it wasn’t pretty, shooting 5 of 14 from the field.
• One of the poorest statistical shooting performance I can remember.
  • NC State shot 31.8% from the field and 12% from three (3-25).
• The Wolfpack’s DNA on defense is turning over their opponent, and they were unable to do so tonight, turning over the Rebels only 7 times.
  • For comparison, the Wolfpack turned it over 13 times, giving them a Turnover Margin tonight of -6.
  • Heading into tonight, they averaged a Turnover Margin of +7.8.
  • Ole Miss scored 13 points off of turnovers, compared to NC State’s 4.
  • This is the first time this season that NC State failed to force their opponent to commit at least 10 turovers.
• NC State was -25 when D.J. Burns was on the court, which was the worst on the team.
  • NC State was +3 when L.J. Thomas was on the court, and +2 when Ben Middlebrooks were on the court. They were the only two players in the positive.
  • Thomas and Middlebrooks should have earned themselves some more playing time going forward.
• Ole Miss’ length was problematic for the Wolfpack, blocking 9 of their shots.

There will be more analysis on this game coming tomorrow.