Pack Finishes Season 24-12
RALEIGH, NC – The NC State men’s basketball team fell Lipscomb 94-93 on Wednesday night inside James T. Valvano Arena at Reynolds Coliseum, concluding its season in the NIT quarterfinals.
Torin Dorn ended his Wolfpack career with a career-best 34 points and grabbed nine rebounds. His scoring performance is the best in program history in the NIT.
The Charlotte native finished the game 15-of-22 from the field and 4-of-5 from the foul line in scoring 34 points. He had four of his nine rebounds on the offensive glass.
Dorn concludes his career 33rd on the NC State all-time scoring list with 1,267 points. His 214 career offensive rebounds rank as the 13th-most in program history.
NC State led 48-39 at the half, but Lipscomb scored on its first five possessions of the second half and eventually took a 57-56 lead on a jumper with 13:47 to play.
Lipscomb stretched the lead to 65-60 with 11:55 to play, but the Pack went on a 5-0 burst to tie the game at 65 with 10:54 to go. From that point forward, the biggest lead for either team was four points.
NC State lead 88-84 with 3:06 to go, but Lipscomb connected on two free throws and then a backdoor bucket by Garrison Mathews squared the game at 88 with 1:10 to go.
Markell Johnson responded on NC State’s next possession from long range to put the Pack up three with 42 seconds to go.
Lipscomb cut the lead to two on a Mathews free throw with 26 seconds remaining and then the Bisons’ Kenny Cooper stepped in front of the in-bounds pass on the Pack’s ensuing possession and made a three-pointer to give Lipscomb a 92-91 lead with 24 seconds to go.
Following a timeout, Johnson drove and put the Pack back in front with a lay-up, but Cooper again had a response, hitting a short jumper in the lane with 1.7 seconds remaining for the winning bucket.
Regaining the lead and putting the Pack up four thanks to eight straight points in a minute’s time by Johnson, NC State would not give up the advantage until the 1:10 mark in the closing half.
Lipscomb’s Mathews led all scorers with 44 points. The 44 points are the second-most ever by an NC State opponent and the most points scored by an NC State opponent in Reynolds Coliseum.
Johnson scored all 19 of his points in the second half. CJ Bryce also reached double figures with 10 points, while Devon Daniels added 10 points off the bench.
The Pack shot 52.8 percent in the game, its highest shooting percentage since shooting 62.5 percent in win over Loyola Maryland on Dec. 28.
NC State concludes the season with a 24-12 record. Of the 11 players on NC State’s roster, only Dorn and Eric Lockett have exhausted their eligibility.
