WASHINGTON (AP) -- Casey Morsell scored 25 points, Jayden Taylor had 18 points, eight rebounds and four steals as No. 10 seed North Carolina State beat No. 15 seed Louisville 94-85 on Tuesday night in the first round of the ACC Tournament, spoiling a 36-point performance by Skyy Clark.
NC State (18-14) advances to play No. 7 seed Syracuse in the second round on Wednesday. The Wolfpack lost both regular-season meetings with the Orange, 77-65 on the road and 87-83 at home.
Clark made a 3-pointer on back-to-back possessions to tie it at 75-all with 4:50 to go and set a career-high in scoring with 30. But Taylor answered with two straight makes from distance to give NC State an 81-77 lead.
N.C. State made 11 free throws in the final three minutes to seal it. The Wolfpack finished 33 of 40 from the stripe, with 13 straight makes by Morsell. Louisville was 11 of 11.
Michael O'Connell added 16 points, DJ Burns Jr. scored 12 and Ben Middlebrooks had 11 for NC State. DJ Horne, NC State's leading scorer at 16.8 points per game, did not play due to a hip injury.
Clark finished 12-of-17 shooting, including 7 of 9 from 3-point range, for Louisville (8-24), which ended the season on an eight-game losing streak with coach Kenny Payne's future in question. Brandon Huntley-Hatfield had 17 points and seven rebounds, and Tre White added 13 points.
Louisville led by as many as 12 points in the first half before having its lead trimmed to 46-45 at the break after turning it over nine times. The Cardinals shot 66.7% in the first half, including 6 of 9 from 3-point range.
Louisville's first points from a reserve came on Curtis Williams' jumper from the free-throw line with 12:46 remaining in the second half to get within 61-54. Williams finished the five points - the only bench points for the Cardinals.
Clark, who entered with just 18 total points in his last three games, set a program record for single-game points in the ACC Tournament. His previous single-game high overall was 29 in a double-overtime victory over New Mexico State on Nov. 26.
Of Note
- NC State (18-14, 9-11 ACC) snapped a four-game losing streak on Tuesday and will advance to play seventh-seed Syracuse (20-11, 11-9 ACC) in the second round. NC State and Syracuse have split the two previous meetings in ACC Tournament play with the Orange winning the most recent matchup, 89-68, in 2021.
- As the 10th seed, the Wolfpack is now 4-3 all-time in the ACC Tournament. It marked the first time in program history that NC State met the 15-seed in the conference tournament.
- NC State improved to 4-2 all-time in ACC Tournament games played in Washington, D.C.
- The Wolfpack evened the all-time series against Louisville at 14-14. NC State also defeated the Cardinals earlier this year, 89-83, on January 13 at the KFC Yum! Center in Louisville, Kentucky.
- The Wolfpack scored 45 points in the first half, coming within two of matching its season-high for the opening half - 47 vs. Abilene Christian on November 10, 2023.