How ‘bout some ice cream with that turkey? NC State overcame a slow start against Dayton to control quite a bit of this game today, and led by Jarkel Joiner’s big second half, the Wolfpack ran to a relatively painless win down the stretch.
After leading by four points at the break, State found itself down a point about five minutes into the second half, then proceeded to score 17 unanswered over the next five minutes. During the run, NC State’s win probability flipped from 37% to 93%, according to KenPom’s numbers. Not bad!
Joiner had a big part in that decisive run and finished the afternoon with 27 points on 7-12 shooting from the floor and 11-13 shooting at the free throw line. Dayton could not find answers for him consistently and paid the price.
Baby T struggled from the field again while accounting for half of the Pack’s 16 turnovers, but thankfully the Pack got solid contributions from DJ Burns, Dusan Mahorcic, and Jack Clark. State made 62.9% of its two-pointers and grabbed 13 offensive rebounds to make up for problems elsewhere.
Sixteen turnovers is too many, but Dayton had 18 of its own, so that was pretty much a wash. The Flyers also got next to nothing from the perimeter, finishing 2-11 from three, and they missed two-thirds of their free throws. The Pack made sure to take advantage.
With the win, NC State is set to play the winner of Butler/BYU tomorrow night at 10 p.m. ET on ESPN2. Leaves a lot of time for leftovers tomorrow.
Happy Thanksgiving!!!!
Enjoying Turkey &— Kevin Keatts (@CoachKeattsNCSU) November 25, 2022
