ACC Hoops: Georgia Tech cruises by NC State 87-62 

March 1,2025 

Atlanta, GA- Baye Ndongo scored a career-high 29 points and grabbed 17 rebounds, Duncan Powell added 23 points and 10 rebounds and Georgia Tech beat N.C. State 87-62 on Saturday at McCamish Pavilion. 

Lance Terry added 15 points, Jaeden Mustaf came off the bench for 13 points and Naithan George had 12 assists for the Yellow Jackets (15-14, 9-9 ACC). 

For the Wolfpack, Ben Middlebrooks and Dontrez Styles scored 13 points each for the Wolfpack (11-18, 4-14), who shot just 38%. 

The Yellow Jackets finished the final four minutes of the first half on a 16-5 run and held a 41-30 halftime lead. The lead remained in double figures in the second half with a 13-0 run leading to a 24-point lead with under five minutes to go. 

The Yellow Jackets finished the game with a 48-22 advantage in points in the paint and outscored the Pack, 23-4, in second chance points. 

Main takeaway was turnovers. Losing the turnover battle is a great way to lose a game, and the Pack did that. They committed 14 turnovers on the afternoon while the Jackets gave up only six. The home squad took advantage of those mistakes by outscoring State 21-2 off turnovers. 

Postgame Coaching Comments by Kevin Keatts, Head Coach of NC State Opening Statement 

“It was two different halves. I didn’t think we did a really good job of blocking out in the first half. We gave up eight offensive rebounds. That toughness right there really hurt us. You know, giving up second chance points. We talked about it at halftime. We did a much better job early on in the second half and not giving up as much, even though they ended up with 14. We turned the ball over.

When you look at the difference in the score, we were right there. We worked and then we turned it over. The turnovers for touchdowns, very uncharacteristic of us. We haven’t had a really, really good season, but we have taken care of the ball during those moments. That’s where we were at today. One of the biggest turning points of the game is Ben plays 17 minutes, he’s a toughness guy. He gets in foul trouble. We rolled the dice while trying to get him back in and all of a sudden the score gets away from us. We did some good things. But 13 assists and 12 turnovers, one of the few games that you could take a stat sheet and see where the other team had a lot more attempts than us. We’re usually in that position where we get more shots than the other team.” 

On Jayden Taylor, Michael O’Connell and Marcus Hill shooting 3-17 from the field 

“I mean, what do you do? They got good looks, they just didn’t go down. We looked good in shootaround, we made shots. Sometimes the ball doesn’t go in. This was one of those few nights that it didn’t.” 

N.C. State is home against Pitt on Wednesday and finishes the regular season at Miami next Saturday. Georgia Tech is home against Miami on Tuesday and is at Wake Forest next Saturday.