On Tuesday night, NC State’s men’s basketball team (16-10, 8-7) lost to Syracuse (17-10, 8-8) with a final score of 87-83 at PNC Arena.

DJ Horne finished the evening with a season-high 32 points. The graduate guard has scored 20 or more points in six consecutive games and Tuesday’s contest marked his 100th career game scoring in double figures.

DJ Burns, Jr., Ben Middlebrooks, and Jayden Taylor all scored in the double digits. Burns and Middlebrooks each had 12 points, while Taylor scored 10 points.

Middlebrooks achieved his second double-double of the season for the Pack by grabbing a game-high of ten rebounds, while Burns distributed a team-leading four assists.

Syracuse began the game strongly, scoring 55 points in the first half. 26 of those points were contributed by Chris Bell, who made eight consecutive three-pointers in the first half alone. This accounted for almost half of Syracuse’s first-half score.

In the second half, Bell was unable to score and ended up with a total of 26 points, leading the Orange team. Quadir Copeland also contributed greatly with 25 points.

Although the Wolfpack was down by 15 points at halftime and fell behind by 16 at the beginning of the second half, they managed to tie the game multiple times in the second half. One of these ties was at 83-83 with less than a minute left. The Pack even had a small lead thanks to a 6-0 run and an overall 18-7 surge, but ultimately lost when Middlebrooks made two free throws, giving NC State a brief 82-81 advantage.

In the last two minutes of the game, Syracuse scored six points while the Wolfpack only scored one. They secured their victory by making four free throws in the last 15 seconds.

On February 24th, NC State will continue their two-game homestand by playing against Boston College at PNC Arena. The game will start at 2 p.m. and will honor the 50th anniversary of NC State’s 1974 National Championship. It will be shown on the ACC Network.

Source: wralsportsfan.com