North Carolina State likely needs to win its last five Atlantic Coast Conference games, starting with Saturday afternoon’s matchup with visiting Boston College in Raleigh, N.C., if it hopes to reach the NCAA Tournament with an at-large bid.
NC State (16-10, 8-7 ACC) nearly rallied to beat visiting Syracuse on Tuesday. But after digging a 15-point first-half hole, the Wolfpack’s comeback fell short, 87-83, despite guard DJ Horne’s game-high 32 points.
Boston College (15-11, 6-9) is 2-5 on the road in conference after falling 84-76 to Florida State on Tuesday in Tallahassee, Fla.
NC State saw its NET ranking drop from No. 75 to 80 after the Quad-3 loss to Syracuse.
“We definitely don’t want to put ourselves out of it now,” Horne said. “But we know the margin of error is smaller now, and we have to lock in for these games that are left.”
Horne is a grad student who transferred from Arizona State to his hometown of Raleigh to finish his career at NC State. He has scored 24 or more points for six straight games and leads the Wolfpack with 17.7 points per game.
DJ Burns (12.0 ppg), Casey Morsell (11.3) and Jayden Taylor (11.2) support Horne in NC State’s attack.
Boston College has a pair of road wins this season, but only against teams (Notre Dame and Georgia Tech) with worse conference records.
The Eagles committed nine of their 16 turnovers in a sloppy second half against Florida State.
“We’re usually great with ball care,” Boston College coach Earl Grant said. “They did a good job of turning us over. You have to give them credit.”
Quinten Post leads the Eagles with 16.3 points and 7.7 rebounds per game. Guards Claudell Harris Jr (14.0 ppg) and Jaeden Zackery (11.8) are 3-point threats for BC.
– Field Level Media
