Dereon Seabron scored 21 points and grabbed 11 rebounds as North Carolina State survived a ragged first 26 minutes and rallied for a 65-57 win over visiting Texas Southern on Sunday in Raleigh, NC.
The Wolfpack (4-1) trailed by three points at halftime and by 41-37 six minutes into the second half before finding their stride, using a 10-0 run to sweep to the lead and then a 9-3 spurt to take a 58-50 advantage with 4:21 to play. Texas Southern never got closer than six points the rest of the way.
Cam Hayes added 12 points for NC State and Jericole Hellems hit for 10 as the Wolfpack shot 51.9 percent in the second half and won despite making just 17 of 29 free throws and going only 4 of 22 from 3-point range.
PJ Henry led Texas Southern (0-5) with 12 points. The Tigers shot just 31.3 percent from the floor.
NC State broke away from an 11-11 tie with a 9-0 run capped by Terquavion Smith’s 3-pointer to take a 20-11 lead at the 7:41 mark of the first half.
But the rest of the half belonged to Texas Southern, which fashioned its own surge, scoring 15 of the next 20 points to take a 26-25 lead after Brison Gresham’s layup with 3:01 to play in the half. Henry hit a layup at the horn to give Texas Southern a 31-28 advantage at the break.
Both teams were abysmal with their shooting in the first half, with Texas Southern making just 11 of 37 (29.7 percent) and the Wolfpack ending up 8 of 28 (28.6 percent), including 2 of 13 from beyond the arc.
Hellems led all scorers with 10 points at halftime, with Henry pacing the Tigers with nine over the first 20 minutes.
Texas Southern was up by four points after a layup by Joirdon Karl Nicholas with 14:17 to play before the Wolfpack reeled off the next 10 points to take the lead for good.
–Field Level Media
