CHAPEL HILL — Entering Saturday’s Atlantic Coast Conference game at rival North Carolina, N.C. State’s Kevin Keatts had already registered a number of signature wins in his first season as the head coach of the Wolfpack. He added another one Saturday at the Dean Smith Center. A very big one.
Allerik Freeman scored a career-high 29 points and the Wolfpack used 15 3-pointers as N.C. State outlasted the 10th-ranked Tar Heels 95-91 in overtime. The win was the fourth of the season for the Wolfpack over a ranked opponent as N.C. State had already posted victories over then-No. 2 Arizona, then-No. 2 Duke and then-No. 19 Clemson.
“We fought all the way to the end,” said Keatts after the Wolfpack improved to 5-4 in the ACC and 15-7 overall. “I thought whoever got the most stops at the end would win it. It was a tremendous effort by a lot of guys. It was a great team win.”
It was another strong finish for the Wolfpack, who trailed by six points with under 5 minutes to play in regulation. Led by guards Freeman, Markell Johnson, Torin Dorn and Braxton Beverly, the Wolfpack took an 83-81 lead on a layup by Johnson with 10.9 seconds left in regulation. Two free throws by UNC’s Cameron Johnson tied the game at 83 after regulation and sent the game into the extra session.
There, UNC grabbed a quick two-point lead on a pair of free throws from Theo Pinson, but Markell Johnson hit two free throws at the 4:46 mark and his 3-pointer, the Wolfpack’s 15th in the contest, gave N.C. State a lead it would not relinquish. Omer Yurtseven had a key offensive rebound for a basket with 30.9 seconds left for a 91-88 lead and after a missed 3-pointer by UNC’s Cameron Johnson, Beverly canned a pair of charity tosses for a 93-88 Wolfpack lead.
Luke Maye’s long and arching 3-pointer with 6.7 seconds left pulled UNC to within 93-91 and UNC forced a loose ball on the ensuing inbounds pass, but Sterling Manley found himself going out of bounds and threw the ball to a State player and two free throws by Markell Johnson iced the game for the Wolfpack.
“We were trying to get a steal and I gambled a bit and we came away with it,” said UNC’s Kenny Williams of stripping the ball late. “Sterling was falling out of bounds and he did everything he could do to keep the ball in play. It just so happened that none of us went to get it.”
Keatts said he likes the way his team fights at the end of games.
“I think these guys are learning how to fight and learning how to compete,” Keatts
said of his team’s late-game heroics. “We talked in the locker room before the game that they would have the rest of today off and Sunday off and Monday off. I told them they had to play hard for 40 minutes. I didn’t know it was going to go into extra innings. We know that if we play together and stay together, we can be successful.”
The Tar Heels entered the game having won 21 of the past 23 games against the Wolfpack, including two last year. UNC defeated State 107-56 at home and 97-73 in Raleigh. The 107 points scored at the Dean Smith Center were the most points scored by one team in the history of the series and the 51-point win was UNC’s largest margin of victory in an ACC game.
The Wolfpack would have nothing of that this time around.
“They have done a real nice job,” said UNC coach Roy Williams, who is now 32-4 as a head coach against N.C. State, including a 5-0 record at Kansas and a 27-4 mark at Carolina. “They have gotten better and better. Yurtseven scores inside and he defends inside and Allerik was 7-for-7 from the 3-point line. That’s pretty good. I’m not pleased with the way we played. We missed a bunch of free throws in the second half and in overtime. We turned it over twice in overtime on critical plays. I just want us to play better.”
UNC (5-4, 16-6) was 9 of 17 from the free-throw line after halftime. Carolina did shoot the ball well at 52.8 percent from the floor, but it was the first game under Williams UNC shot at least 50 percent from the floor at home and lost.
UNC led 10-4 early in the first half, but a 15-3 run by State gave the Wolfpack a 19-13 lead. The Wolfpack trailed 26-23 when Freeman canned back-to-back 3-pointers for a 29-26 lead.
N.C. State, which was averaging just 6.8 3-pointers a game coming into the contest, hit its sixth of the first half for a 34-30 lead, but the Tar Heels scored six straight points and then used a bucket by Cameron Johnson at the buzzer for a 41-38 lead at the break.
N.C. State, which played a mostly four-guard set, was led by Freeman’s 29 points. Dorn had 20, Markell Johnson 20, Yurtseven 16 and Beverly 10.
Maye had 31 points and 11 rebounds, his 12th double-double of the season. Pinson had career highs in points (22), rebounds (10), field goals (10) and field goal attempts (16). Cameron Johnson had 12 points.