Texas ends NC State basketball's season with clutch jumper at First Four

Jadyn Watson-Fisher, The News & Observer on Mar 18, 2026

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Paul McNeil sat in the N.C. State men’s basketball locker room on Monday night during the team’s pregame media availability. He said guys around the country would have to figure out the rest of their lives starting on March 17.

A number of N.C. State players are in that group.

N.C. State made a number of clutch plays down the stretch, including a pair of 3s from McNeil and one free throw from senior guard Tre Holloman in the final 90 seconds. Unfortunately for the Pack, Texas guard Tramon Mark hit four straight baskets, including the game-winner with 1.1 seconds remaining, sending the Wolfpack home with a 68-66 loss to the Longhorns in the NCAA Tournament First Four on Tuesday night.

It was the Longhorns’ second win over the Pack this season and allows Texas (19-14) to advance to the NCAA Tournament’s round of 64 to play BYU Thursday in Portland, Oregon.

N.C. State (20-14) closed the year losing six of its last seven and only winning two games since the first week of February.

Senior forward Darrion Williams led all players with 21 points and was the only scorer for the first seven minutes. He recorded the first seven points and 10 of the team’s first 12. Quadir Copeland followed his teammate with 16 points.

McNeil added 11 points and three 3-pointers, tying the program’s single-season 3-point record.

It’s not very often N.C. State can say its defense kept the game within reach all night, but it can after its performance in the First Four. It was a much different game than the matchup during the Maui Invitational when the two teams combined for 199 points.

The Wolfpack opened the game by forcing three straight stops, including a pair of turnovers. Texas responded with a 9-0 run and scored nine points at the free throw line, building a 10-point lead.

The Pack, however, did not let up. It held the Longhorns to one of its next eight shots. N.C. State followed that up by holding Texas without a field goal from the 8:40 mark until halftime and three 2-point field goals in the opening 20 minutes.

Additionally, N.C. State held Texas without a fastbreak point. That was a major point of emphasis for the team, which gave up 24 points in transition, and finished minus-17 in the metric, when the two squads faced off in the Maui Invitational.

“I thought we scored the ball well, but our transition defense was terrible,” senior captain Jordan Snell said prior to the game. “I thought we showed some fight (in Game 1) … but definitely didn’t execute the way we needed to. I think we know that, and we know we’re a better team than we were when we played them in Maui.”

The Longhorns finished with eight points in transition. The offense, however, struggled to get going, especially at the rim. N.C. State went 6 of 16 on layup opportunities in the first half. It shot just 35.5% from the field in the opening period.

N.C. State’s second-half offense wasn’t much better. It was actually worse for most of the night. The Wolfpack shot 39% from the field, including 6-16 (37.5%) from 3-point range. Until McNeil’s late 3s, the Pack made 1 of 7 baskets from the perimeter in the second half.

Foul trouble became a big issue early into the game and continued to be a problem into the second half. Four N.C. State players were called for two fouls in the first half. Will Wade actually petitioned the officials for more foul calls during the under-4 media timeout. At the time, his team — which is undersized compared to Texas and was getting beat on the boards by more than 13 rebounds — had been called for nine fouls to Texas’ four.

The number of foul calls evened out following his pleas, but the foul trouble didn’t go away. Ven-Allen Lubin went to the bench with more than 12 minutes to play after officials handed him his fourth foul. He returned with 5:41 on the clock until he fouled out four minutes later.

Musa Sagnia was hit with his third, fourth and fifth fouls in the span of two seconds. He went to the bench with more than nine minutes remaining.

The rebounding effort, if it can be called that, didn’t help the Wolfpack very much. Texas out-rebounded N.C. State, 45-33, including 15 on the offensive end. The Longhorns scored 13 on second-chance opportunities.

The Wolfpack has not outrebounded an opponent in 12 games, with its last positive rebounding margin taking place on Jan. 31 at Wake Forest.