ACC Hoops: Syracuse Takes Down NC State, 74-60

Feb 26, 2025 

Syracuse, NY- Eddie Lamkin Jr. had 14 points and 15 rebounds, JJ Starling had 17 and Jyare Davis had 15 and Syracuse never trailed in beating N.C. State 74-60 on Wednesday night at the JMA Wireless Dome. 

Six-foot-11 Lampkin collected his 12th double-double this season and the Orange (12-16, 6-11 ACC) outscored the Wolfpack 46-22 in the paint while shooting 58% overall. Starling scored 15 of his 17 points in the second half when Davis had 10 of his 15 and the Orange shot 72%. 

Dontrez Styles scored all 17 of his points in the second half, including four 3-pointers, the only Wolfpack (11-17, 4-13) player to reach double figures. N.C. State shot 34%. 

Syracuse shot 50% in the first half — 20% better than N.C. State — and never trailed in taking a 38-25 lead. Lampkin led the way with nine points and eight rebounds while three of the Wolfpack starters were scoreless and shot just 2 of 13 from the 3-point line. The Orange maintained a double-figures lead from the midpoint of the half, leading by as many as 16. 

Michael O’Connell added nine points, Marcus Hill had eight while Ben Middlebrooks and Breon Pass each chipped in six. NC State trailed by as many as 19 points in the second half before going on a 16-5 run highlighted by 11 points from Dontrez Styles to get within eight, 57-49, with 8:38 to play. But after getting within eight, NC State would only make one field goal over the next six minutes to allow the Orange to rebuild a double digit lead. 

Syracuse finished the game shooting 58.3 percent from the field, the second-highest shooting percentage allowed by NC State this season, while the Pack shot just 34.4 percent from the field, its second-lowest shooting percentage of the season. The Orange shot 72.2 percent (13-of-18) from the field in the final 20 minutes. Syracuse outscored NC State, 46-22, in the paint. NC State entered the game leading the ACC in fast break points and had zero against the Orange.

Takeaways: Punched in the Mouth again: For the third straight Wednesday, NC State was out of the game before it headed to the locker room. After losses to Louisville and UNC-Chapel Hill by 20-plus, the Wolfpack trailed by double digits less than six minutes 

into the game and never got the margin with two possessions in the final 35:19 of the game. 

Shooting was abysmal: Shooting has been a problem for the Wolfpack all season long, and it reared its ugly head again on Wednesday. One game after shooting 50 percent from the floor and 40 percent from behind the arc, State went back to its bad habits again in Syracuse. The Pack started out by missing nine of its first 10, 12 of its first 15 and 20 of its first 27 shots on the night to head into the half down by 13. On outside shooting, State went 2-of-13 behind the arc in the first half before hitting six in the second half with the game already out of hand the Pack couldn’t generate efficient offense from anywhere on the floor. 

ACC tournament chances slim: Despite already locking in a losing record overall and in ACC play, the Pack still had a team goal of trying to make the cut for the ACC Tournament and get inside the Top 15 of the 18 teams in the league. In a game that the Wolfpack absolutely needed, it didn’t show up. With the loss, State has three games remaining to make up a two-game deficit to simply make the ACC Tournament. The path is narrow with two out of the last three games on the road. 

N.C. State plays at Georgia Tech and Syracuse travels to Virginia Tech for games on Saturday.