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WASHINGTON — NC State’s Michael O’Connell took advantage of a miscommunication and buried a wide-open 3-pointer from the corner.

Kyle Cuffe Jr. was supposed to be guarding him, and a livid Adrian Autry let him know it. In the timeout, Autry sat down and unleashed fury on his players, yelling “Just be solid!” to the whole team. He then turned his attention to Quadir Copeland, ordering patience and bemoaning SU’s shot selection.

There was plenty of anger coming from Autry and his players in Syracuse’s (20-12, 11-9 Atlantic Coast Conference) 83-65 blowout to NC State (19-14, 9-11 ACC) in the second round of the ACC Tournament. Profanity was yelled in frustration from the bench as the Orange made constant mistakes, tying a season-high 19 turnovers. The Wolfpack took advantage, scoring 30 points off SU’s giveaways.

Despite a late-season four-game win streak, a loss against Clemson left the Orange with “work to do” according to ESPN’s Bracket Watch. And after its performance against the Wolfpack, an National Invitational Tournament berth is all but confirmed.

“I think anytime you get a chance to make a postseason, I think, you have to take it,” a dejected Autry said when asked whether his team would accept an invite to the NIT.

Through the first 10 minutes, Judah Mintz scored nearly half of Syracuse’s points. He hit his first two shot attempts from the right side before drawing a shooting foul and scoring two more points. Maliq Brown, meanwhile, had SU’s only 3-point attempt on a bank shot from the top of the key with the shot clock expiring.

The Orange shot 40% from the field in the first half compared to NC State’s 39.39%, but had fewer attempts (30) due to committing five more turnovers. Mintz and Copeland both threw bad passes that led to Wolfpack possession, while Mintz also was stripped of the ball on one occasion by opposing guard Jayden Taylor.

Tempers started to flare on the bench as NC State scored more fastbreak points and gained control of the game. Meanwhile, SU couldn’t get a consistent offensive rhythm going for the majority of the first half.

Autry took particular displeasure with his team’s tendency to pull up from long range. The Orange routinely drained the shot clock down to its final ticks, forcing them into contested 3s or long 2s. After J.J. Starling cut to the basket and scored on a layup, Autry looked back at his bench and said “stop shooting f***ing jump shots.”

There were plenty of points where there were poor long shots. Both Brown and Copeland had wide-open looks from beyond the arc but both missed. On multiple possessions, Mintz was the ball-handler as the shot clock was down to one and he threw up contested shots that barely hit the rim.

There seemed to be some momentum for Syracuse out of halftime, recording two quick steals in the 2-3 zone after mostly playing man defense in the first half. Starling generated a turnover and scored a bucket, and Chris Bell, who sat out most of the first half after drawing two personal fouls, buried a 3-pointer to give SU a two-point lead.

But the errors remained. DJ Burns Jr. tried to move around Brown to create space in the paint. Burns Jr. missed the shot, but neither Brown nor Justin Taylor grabbed the rebound, giving Burns Jr. a chance to grab the ball and kick out to Taylor, who buried a 3-pointer to put the Wolfpack up by seven.

The failed rebound came in the middle of a three-minute scoreless stretch for the Orange, ended by a Starling floater. But SU seemingly couldn’t catch a break as the headaches continued to mount. A minute after DJ Horne missed a 3, but Mohamed Diarra corralled the rebound and passed to Horne. The guard then converted on the second attempt with a layup.

Autry said the Wolfpack’s 17 offensive boards were the deciding factor. When NC State missed, Syracuse couldn’t come up with the rebound it needed. This came to size as Brown matched up against bigger forward Burns Jr. Brown said he knew the Wolfpack wanted to go to Burns Jr. down low. But there was a much different result this time.

“We knew going into the game that we would have an advantage in the post,” Wolfpack head coach Kevin Keatts said. “With DJ, (Mohamed) and Ben (Middlebrooks), we wanted to throw the ball to those guys and to obviously play inside out.”

Taylor buried a 3-pointer on a second chance and Horne then scored on a driving layup — part of a 17-2 NC State run. But it only got worse as Horne scored again on a layup and then scored a free throw after Mintz was called for a technical during a timeout. Seemingly out of nowhere, NC State was up by 17.

SU responded with a quick 5-0 run before Bell came out of an NC State timeout and drew an offensive foul before making a jumper. But O’Connell and Horne each hit triples to increase the Wolfpack’s lead once again. Autry frequently held his head in reaction to his team’s performance.

When Casey Morsell had a steal and rushed down the floor, Autry looked crushed while Bell shrugged his arms and looked into the fan section behind where SU was sitting. The Orange started to play more of a press, but that slowed down NC State only slightly and it didn’t make up for the turnovers.

With just over four minutes remaining, Autry threw up the signal for press, but couldn’t even stomach to look at the court. His predecessor Jim Boeheim, sitting from the ACC Network desk behind the hoop, squinted and looked disappointed.

Boeheim never got the Orange past the quarterfinals of the ACC Tournament since the program joined the conference in 2013. The first year of the Autry era didn’t change that. Even with the loss, Autry said the Orange always got better each month. Starling furthered this sentiment, reflecting on an ultimate up-and-down season.

“We stayed together and we ended up having a 20-win season, something that nobody expected us to do,” Starling said. “So it just goes to show what we’re capable of being and when we’re together.”

Published on March 13, 2024 at 9:41 pm

Contact Henry: henrywobrien1123@gmail.com