The Rady Children’s Invitational was a good idea, four good teams, but poorly implemented on our part. We played four quarters – the first lost by 1, the second by 9, the third by 11 and the fourth tied – but that might have been because they cleared their bench when they had a 20-point lead over us .

As we all feared, when we faced increased competition, it turned out that we were not up to the task. Our rebounding was terrible, with both teams putting us behind by double digits. Dontrez Styles, who we believe is one of our better outside shooters, was 0-7 from 3PT and had more fouls (8) than total points (6) in the two games.

We have until next Wednesday to find out, when we have our last reasonable chance at a good OOC win against Texas. (Kansas doesn’t count) Hopefully the home court will help.

Game summary:

The first half started badly, with BYU going from 3PT to 4-4 and going up 14-5 in the first three minutes. Things didn’t really get any better from that point on, with the Pack shooting 29.6 FG% and BYU shooting 53.8 FG%, including 6-10 (60%!) from 3PT. We saw Diouf in the game, unfortunately his three minutes were overshadowed by a missed dunk. The recovery remains a weakness; We were outrebounded 20-13. O’Connell led us with 10 points and was the only Wolfpack player with more than one field goal. BYU 38-27 at halftime.

We played better in the second half, but spent much of the half with almost 20 points. We shot 43.3% / 50% / 75% to 33.3% / 25% / 66.7%. They beat us by 6 points. We even ended up playing them 34/34 in the second half, but couldn’t make up the 11-point halftime deficit. Final score: BYU 72-61.

General findings:

• We scored 61 points in both games. (Purdue 61-71, BYU 61-72)
• In the first half, no one other than O’Connell made more than one basket (4-7/2-3).
• 11 points behind at halftime, 11 points behind
• Out rebounded 13 and gave up 15 offensive rebounds
• Only 9 ball losses
• 10 assists with 21 made FGs
• Points in the paint BYU 30, Wolfpack 20

Keatts’ comments

Individual highlights

• Weird stat – Styles and Hill were 2-7 yesterday and 1-5 today
• O’Connell – Reached the high point of his NC State career with 16 points but just 1 assist
• Taylor – 16 points, 4/7 from 3PT and 5 rebounds
• Huntley-Hatfield (3) and Taylor (4) were responsible for 7 of our 9 turnovers
• Huntley-Hatfield had another good rebound game with 9
• Trey Parker got the start and had a very good second half with 9 points, 3 rebounds and an assist.

Box score