NC State 62 Cal 74: BY THE NUMBERS

NC State fell 62-74 to Cal on the road tonight, dropping to 9-13 overall and 2-9 in the ACC.

When it rains, it pours. Breaking down the numbers, there isn’t a single positive statistic from this debacle, which seems to be a microcosm of the season as a whole.

Sadly, the Golden Bears didn’t perform well on paper either.

Cal shot 42.2% from the field, while the Wolfpack shot 38.7%.

The Golden Bears out-rebounded NC State by 12 and had six more offensive boards.

Cal hit six more three-pointers, shooting 42.9% from beyond the arc. The Wolfpack hit three threes, shooting 23.1%.

The Golden Bears had 16 assists on 27 made field goals; NC State had 5 assists on 24 made field goals.

Cal was +4 in points off turnovers and +4 in second-chance points.

Marcus Hill was NC State’s lone player to score in double figures, with 20 points on 8 of 14 shooting.

Dontrez Styles, who played extremely well in the previous two games, had one of the worst performances of his career tonight, shooting 3 of 16 from the field.

After the Wolfpack lost to Clemson in the previous game, NC State Head Coach Kevin Keatts said, “We struggle offensively at times to get us over the hump to win the games, and we’ll figure it out. I don’t know when, but we will.”

Well, they didn’t figure it out tonight.

The Wolfpack have lost seven straight games and nine of their last ten.

The last time NC State started ACC play at 2-9 was in the 2015-16 season. For context, the last time the Wolfpack kicked off conference play with a 2-10 record was in 2009-10.

We will have to wait until Saturday night to see if this NC State team will tie for the worst start in ACC play in ten years, or for the worst in 16 years, depending on the outcome of the Wolfpack’s game at Stanford.