Box Score

State did tonight what it has done all year--took care of the basketball but shot poorly and lost. There was some irony to this outcome; the turnover and rebounding problems that plagued the majority of the Sidney Lowe era were not issues tonight, but the end was as obvious as ever. The Pack finished the night with a +9 turnover margin and attempted 80 shots to Maryland's 58. A couple of years ago, these results would have meant an easy win for NC State.

Tonight, this year, they made little difference because the shooting wasn't there. It wasn't there because they could not execute the open looks they had and wasted too many possessions with horrible, contested shots. Javi Gonzalez, Ryan Harrow, CJ Leslie, Lorenzo Brown ... each made room for laughably contrived scoring opportunities, and that is not the sort of avalanche from which the team's defense could recover.