National Basketball Association
Clemson 68, N.C. State 57
When: 9:00 PM ET, Wednesday, January 28, 2015
Where: PNC Arena, Raleigh, North Carolina
Officials:
# Tim Nestor, # Doug Shows, # Raymond Styons
Attendance:
15866
By SportsDirect Inc.
Clemson 68, North Carolina State 57: Jordan Roper scored a season-high 18 points and the visiting Tigers used a 25-2 run in the first half to hand the Wolfpack their third straight loss.
Rod Hall scored 11 points and Landry Nnoko 10 as Clemson (12-8, 4-4 ACC) led by as many as 23 before the break en route to winning back-to-back games for the first time since December. Jaron Blossomgame contributed seven points and 12 rebounds while Damarcus Harrison recorded eight and seven for the Tigers.
Trevor Lacey registered 17 points, five rebounds and five assists for North Carolina State (13-9, 4-5), which went nearly 10 minutes without a field goal during Clemson's decisive burst. Freshman Abdul-Malik Abu recorded 15 points and 12 rebounds for his first double-double while Ralston Turner scored 10 for the Wolfpack, who rallied to within three midway through the second half before losing for the fourth time in five games after shooting 28.6 percent from the field.
Roper capped the explosion with a pair of 3-pointers to give the Tigers a 27-8 lead 7:44 before halftime and after N.C. State scored the next five points, Clemson responded with a 9-0 run en route to a 36-16 lead at intermission. The Wolfpack scored the first seven points of the second half and cut the deficit to 41-33 on Abu's tip-in with 13:41 to go after N.C. State grabbed three straight offensive rebounds before Nnoko's three-point play made it 47-35 with 12:29 left.
Abu's dunk off Lacey's alley-oop pass capped a 9-0 run - a span in which the Tigers committed four turnovers - to make it 47-44 with 9:19 to play before Clemson scored on three straight trips down the court to extend the lead to nine with 7:01 left. Lacey's 3-pointer got the Wolfpack to within 53-47 with 6:03 to go, but that's as close as they would get as Nnoko's inside bucket off a feed from Blossomgame stretched the advantage to 58-47 with 2:22 remaining.
GAME NOTEBOOK: N.C. State fell to 12-3 when outrebounding its opponent (45-37 over Clemson), which it has done in its last three games. ... The Tigers' previous three ACC victories came on Saturdays. ...Blossomgame entered as Clemson's leading scorer at 13.3 per game and scored all his points in the final 9:05.
Top Game Performances
Clemson |
|
N.C. State |
Jordan Roper 18 |
Scoring |
Trevor Lacey 17 |
Rod Hall 3 |
Assists |
Trevor Lacey 5 |
Jaron Blossomgame 12 |
Rebounds |
Abdul-Malik Abu 12 |
Jordan Roper 5 |
Free Throws Made |
Trevor Lacey 4 |
Rod Hall 2 |
Steals |
Cody Martin 2 |
Donte Grantham 2 |
Blocks |
Abdul-Malik Abu 1 |
Team Stats Summary
Team |
Points |
FG% |
3PM-3PA |
FTM-FTA |
Assists |
Rebounds |
Blocks |
Steals |
Turnovers |
Clemson
|
68 |
47.2 |
6-12 |
12-19 |
11 |
33 |
9 |
4 |
12 |
N.C. State
|
57 |
28.6 |
6-14 |
15-22 |
8 |
43 |
4 |
6 |
11 |