February 6th, 2025
Jovan Blacksher Jr scored 18 points, his 5th straight double figure game and fifth in the last six games. Jeremiah Wilkinson added on 14 points, and California defeated N.C. State 74-62 on Wednesday night at Haas Pavilion.
The Golden Bears held the Wolfpack to 2 of 12 shooting, including nine straight bricks over the final 6 1/2 minutes. California completed a season sweep over NC State and snapped their two game losing streak.
Rytis Petraitis hit a 3-pointer to give Cal a 47-46 lead and later on put the Bears up 62-54 with under seven minutes to go.
The Bears wrapped it up with a 10-0 run that gave them a 72-57 lead with over a minute left.
Joshua Ola-Joseph scored 13 points in just 16 minutes of game time for Cal (12-11, 5-7 ACC) and Mady Sissoko had 13 rebounds. Andre Stojakovic scored six points in his first action from a hip injury since Cal defeated N.C. State 65-62 on Jan. 18 in Raleigh, North Carolina. California out rebounded the Wolfpack by 12 rebounds on the night.
Marcus Hill chipped in 20 points with 8 rebounds for the Wolfpack (9-13, 2-9), who have now lost seven games in a row.
Dontrez Styles led NC State with 10 rebounds. Marcus Hill was the only NC State player to reach double figures. Cal held a 34-30 lead at halftime. The Golden Bears had a 24-16 lead with over 5 minutes left in the opening half, but NC State went on a 9-2 run to get within 26-25 on two free throws by Michael O’Connell with 1:59 left in the half.
NC State’s Pack’s Trey Parker banked in a three-pointer to get NC State within one, 31-30, but Jovan Blacksher Jr. of Cal, beat the buzzer, draining a three to push Cal’s advantage back to four at the break.
Blacksher hit a three 3-pointers in the first half scoring 15 points. The Golden Bears led for the last 12 1/2 minutes and their lead reached eight points with five minutes to go.
Takeaways:
NC State enjoyed some encouraging moments, kept fighting, and fell short of seizing control when it mattered most. As a result, Keatts and his players are on the longest NC State basketball losing streak since Mark Gottfried’s 2016-17 squad tallied seven in a row. Despite consistently showing fight this season, it feels like ages since the current Wolfpack talents have displayed any measure of consistent confidence as a group when it comes to crunch time.
Kevin Keatts took the 2023-24 Wolfpack who became the program’s first ACC Tournament champion to their first Final Four participant since the 1980s. He can still hang his hat at the accomplishment in the midst of this losing streak.
If NC State doesn’t find a way to win on the road against the Stanford the program will be on its longest losing streak since Sidney Lowe’s 2007-08 Wolfpack ended on a nine-game skid.
N.C. State stays in the state of California to play Stanford at Maples Pavilion on Saturday and Cal will host Wake Forest.
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