Raleigh, NC – The NC State men’s basketball team came up short against No. 21 UNC-Chapel Hill Saturday afternoon, falling 96-89 in front of a sold-out PNC Arena crowd. With the loss, NC State falls to 16-9 (6-6 ACC), while the Tar Heels improve to 19-7 (8-5 ACC).
Torin Dorn led the Pack with 21 points on 10-of- 15 shooting. Allerik Freeman followed him with 17 points, and Malik Abdul-Abu (12), Markell Johnson (12), Braxton Beverly (11), and Omer Yurtseven (10) joined them in double figures.


photo by Gene Galin
The first half was a game of runs, as the teams traded momentum through the first 20 minutes of the outing. After UNC-Chapel Hill built up a 10-point lead (28-18) midway through the opening period, NC State fired off 19 unanswered points in just over seven minutes of play. In that span, the Pack held UNC-Chapel Hill to 0-of- 14 shooting and forced four Tar Heel turnovers.
UNC-Chapel Hill missed just seven shots in the final 20 minutes on the way to knocking down 78.1 percent of its second-half attempts.
The Pack snagged 12 steals in the loss, its second-most in a game this season and most in an ACC game, but the Tar Heels 56.3 percent shooting for the game and +17 rebounding margin proved too much to overcome.