The NC State men’s basketball team begins play at the ACC Tournament on Tuesday afternoon with a first round matchup vs. 15th-seed Louisville. Tipoff at Capital One Arena is scheduled for 4:30 p.m. and the game will be televised on the ACC Network.
NC State fans can also listen to Gary Hahn and Tony Haynes call the action on the Wolfpack Sports Network.
State led for a majority of the first 12 minutes as Pitt didn’t take its first lead until 7:21 remained in the first half, but a 16-3 Panthers run in the latter part of the opening half allowed Pitt to take a 39-29 lead into halftime. After the Pack opened the second half with a three-pointer, Pitt went on a 10-0 run to take its largest lead of the game, 49-32, with 16:55 to play. The lead stayed in double digits until an 11-0 NC State run brought the Pack within three, 70-67, with 2:26 to go. NC State could get no closer though as Pitt scored the next five points to put the game out of reach.
Jayden Taylor scored a career-high 28 points on 9-of-15 shooting, including 5-of-10 from three-point range on Saturday night at Pitt. Taylor has now scored 20 or more points in three of his last four games. He is averaging 19.0 points per game in the last four games and is shooting 59.5 percent (22-of-37) from the field, including 60.9 percent (14-of-23) from three-point range.
Junior forward Mohamed Diarra led NC State in rebounding for the fifth straight game.
He has now led the Pack in rebounding in seven of the last eight games and 11 of the last 15 overall. In the last eight games, Diarra is averaging just shy of a double-double with averages of 8.8 points and 9.3 rebounds per game. He is shooting 25-of-46 (54.3%) from the field, including 11-of-23 (47.8%) from three-point range.
He finished the regular season fifth in conference action, averaging 8.0 rebounds per game in 20 ACC contests.
DJ Horne left the Pitt game at the under-8 media timeout on Saturday night.
Despite being limited to 12 minutes and just three points, Horne finished with an average of 18.1 points per game in conference action. For the season, Horne has made 88 three-pointers (fourth-most in ACC) and leads all players in the ACC in three-point field goal percentage at 42.9 percent.
