RALEIGH, N.C. – Continuing its strong play to end the ACC campaign, Stanford men’s basketball earned an 85-84 victory over NC State at Lenovo Center. The Cardinal improves to 20-11 this season and 9-9 in the ACC, with Kyle Smith becoming the first head coach in program history to reach 20 wins in each of his first two seasons on The Farm.
The win was Stanford’s fifth of the season in the NET’s quadrant one, and its third in quadrant 1A. Stanford is one of 23 teams nationally to qualify in both categories – each of the other 22 are safely projected as NCAA Tournament teams.
Ebuka Okorie tallied his seventh 30-point outing of the season, scoring 33 points with career highs of 13 field goals and five 3-pointers, to go with five rebounds, three assists and two steals. Okorie ties Duke’s Marvin Bagley III (2017-18) for the most 30-point games by a freshman in ACC history, and he continued his assault on the Stanford single-season scoring list, passing Casey Jacobsen and Todd Lichti (twice) for eighth with 671 points this year.
Jaylen Thompson scored a career-high 15 points with a season-high six rebounds, going 6-for-12 from the floor, while AJ Rohosy pitched in 14 points with seven rebounds for his highest-scoring outing in ACC play. Jeremy Dent-Smith was in double figures with 10 points, including seven of Stanford’s final nine to close the afternoon.
Benny Gealer scored eight points with a pair of 3-pointers, moving the sharpshooter into seventh on Stanford’s single-season 3-pointers list with 81, tied with former teammate Spencer Jones (2019-20). Gealer, who had two steals, also matched Andrew Vlahov (1989-90) and Chasson Randle (2014-15) for 14th on Stanford’s single-season steals list with 50.
Stanford led for a majority of the first half, paced by Okorie’s 19 points over the first 20 minutes, marking his highest-scoring first half of the season. Okorie made a trio of 3-pointers over just 1:01 of action midway through the frame, and he added a pair at the stripe to give Stanford an eight-point lead, 31-23, with 5:45 to go. NC State (19-12, 10-8 ACC) closed within three at the half, 37-34.
NC State managed to re-take the lead at the start of the second half, and it held a 59-58 advantage with 9:39 to play. Stanford responded with a 9-0 run, which extended to 13-3, to lead by nine – it’s largest of the night. Dent-Smith made a crucial 3-pointer with 1:48 to play and four free throws in the closing seconds to lock in the victory.
Stanford earned the 10th seed in the ACC Tournament, where it will face 15th-seeded Pittsburgh on Tuesday, March 10 at 11 a.m. PT / 2 p.m. ET. The first round action will air on ACC Network.