We finally lost a game and there is one clear place to point the finger of blame in this game: free throws. You heard the same thing after the Wolfpack lost in last year's NCAA tournament to Saint Louis. You heard the same thing the first seven games of this season when the team shot free throws inconsistently. Well, this was a winnable game and the team shot 2-8 from the charity stripe during the second half. Surprisingly bigs BeeJay Anya and Lennard Freeman were perfect from the line throughout the game making half of the teams free throws. The rest of the team went 6-13. Cue sad trombone.
Positives- This was the Wolfpack's first road game and they were competitive and held their own in a hostile environment. State has a few more road games coming up over the next few weeks and we should fair well if this game was an indication. Backcourt star Trevor Lacey had another good performance (minus those free throws) and Kyle Washington stepped up too. The Pack was still looking for better production out of their bigs entering this game.
Negatives- They lost. They missed more free throws. Purdue also did a great job of neutralizing Ralston Turner. The shooting guard only took 3 shots from behind the arc and shot 33% from the field for the game. Barber only had a single turnover, but could still do a better job of utilizing his speed to create in the open court. As a team NC State only had 11 assists in the entire game.
Player of the Game- Kyle Washington 17 points and 9 boards.
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