PITTSBURGH (AP) — Ben Middlebrooks scored a career-high 21 points and No. 11 seed North Carolina State defeated No. 6 Texas Tech 80-67 in the first round of the NCAA Tournament on Thursday night. Ta.
wolf pack (23-14), who won five games in five days in the ACC Tournament, are back in March Madness for the first time in nine years with help from Middlebrooks off the bench and another heartbreaking performance from center DJ Barnes Jr. won the battle.
Burns, who is 6-foot-9 and weighs 275 pounds, finished with 16 points. For North Carolina State, Mo Diarra scored 17 points and grabbed 12 rebounds, and DJ Horn also scored 16 points.
The Wolfpack will play No. 14 seed Oakland on Saturday, ensuring a double-digit seed advances to the South Regional semifinals. The Grizzlies defeated No. 3 seed Kentucky 80-76 on Thursday night.
Joe Toussaint led the Red Raiders (23-11) with 16 points, but Texas Tech couldn't keep up the pace in the second half, making just 7 of 31 3-pointers. NC State opened the game with a 13-2 surge midway through the second half. A bounced pass from Michael O'Connell led to a dunk by Diarra, and a soft running hook shot by Barnes made it 65-51. .
In coach Grant McCasland's first season, the Red Raiders relied on their defense to make it to the tournament. Texas Tech is 18-0 when holding opponents to 70 points or less and just 5-10 when the team reaches that threshold.
NC State reached the 70-point mark on a Middlebrooks layup with 4:06 left.
The past 10 days have been a remarkable turnaround for North Carolina State, which entered the ACC Tournament as a No. 10 seed and was dealing with questions about coach Kevin Keatts' future. The Wolfpack defeated rivals Duke, Virginia, and North Carolina before clinching a decisive victory in the title game.
Keatts admitted he was worried about how his team would react emotionally against an opponent they barely knew. In the end, it turns out NC State was okay thanks to Middlebrooks, a transfer from Clemson. Although Middlebrooks was an important backup player, he was rarely the focus.
That changed against the Red Raiders. Middlebrooks, 6-10, matched his career-high 14 points in the first half against Wake Forest in January. He continued the second time. And when Barnes (playing an old-school under-the-rim game) got going after halftime, Texas Tech tried desperately to keep up.
That didn't happen, and North Carolina State advanced to the second round for the first time since 2015, when the Wolfpack won two games at Pittsburgh and advanced to the Sweet 16. Another opportunity awaits this weekend against the Horizon League champion Golden Grizzlies.
___
AP March Madness bracket: https://apnews.com/hub/ncaa-mens-bracket and coverage: https://apnews.com/hub/march-madness
