LOUISVILLE, Ky.-- NC State continues its season tonight on the road against Louisville. The Wolfpack and Cardinals square off at 8 p.m. ET on Raycom Sports. Follow along with live updates and analysis by refreshing this page, and join the discussion in the connecting thread on the Pack Pride Premium Message Board. Get breaking Pack Pride news in your inbox. Sign up for our FREE email newsletter! First Half Starters for NC State vs. Louisville DJ Funderburk, Braxton Beverly, C.J. Bryce, Devon Daniels and Torin Dorn. 3-pointer gives the Cardinals a 7-4 lead Pack called for a moving screen. MEDIA: Louisville leads 10-6 4:22 into the game. 3 gives Cardinals a 15-8 lead Bryce cuts it to five about seven minutes into the half. Beverly drills a 3 to bring NC State within five at 20-15 Pack gets another stop, but Dorn called for traveling. 9:58 left in the half. MEDIA: Wolfpack with a 12-4 run to cut the deficit to two points at 24-22 with 7:57 left in the half Bryce leads with seven points and five boards Pack is right in this thing despite 11 turnovers so far. MEDIA: NC State 38, Louisville 32 NC State has hit 10 of its last 11 field goals Dorn leads with 13 points Daniels has 10 and is 3 for 3 from the field, 2 for 2 from 3.. Two free throws give Louisville the head Beverly ties the game at 40 with 1:24 left in the half. HALFTIME: Louisville 42, NC State 41 Dorn leads NC State with 14 points and has four rebounds Daniels has 10 and five Bryce seven and six Second Half Pack travels Louisville finishes inside to go up 46-41 a minute into the half. MEDIA: Louisville 52, NC State 46 Cardinals open the second half with a 10-5 run. Funderburk misses a 3, over the back called on Dorn 3-pointer puts Louisville up 59-51 with 12:26 left in the game. MEDIA: Louisville 61, NC State 51 Wolfpack shooting just 28.6 percent from the floor this half Dorn leading the way with 17 points. MEDIA: Louisville 61, NC State 59 with 9:50 to play NC State with an 8-0 run over the last 1:25 since the Cardinals took a 10-point lead. Louisville takes a 65-63 lead Funderburk slams down the alley-oop from Bryce to tie it up with 7:21 to play. Louisville takes a 75-69 leadLouisville takes a 75-69 lead. State calls timeout with 4:06 left. Bryce steps back and drills a 3. NC State calls a timeout down 77-75 with 1:26 left. Two free throws for Louisville makes it 79-75 with 46 seconds left. Louisville hits two free throws to take an eight-point lead. Pack fouls again with 11 seconds left. Bryce's fifth. FINAL: Louisville 84, NC State 77 Pack fought back from down 10 to tie the game multiple times but could not overcome 23 turnovers Beverly led with 19 points, followed by Dorn with 18. Bryce had 15 points and nine rebounds, Daniels 10 and six.<doc-sep>The North Carolina State Wolfpack will look to end Louisville basketball’s three game win streak Thursday when they travel to Louisville for a Top 25 showdown. Chris Mack’s Louisville basketball program cracked the Top 25 rankings this week, showing up at #23, after decimating three straight ACC opponents over a stretch of seven days. Louisville comes into Thursday’s matchup averaging a nearly 20 point margin of victory in those wins. The Wolfpack will offer the Cardinals a tougher test than Saturday’s overmatched Georgia Tech squad did. Led by former Louisville assistant and Rick Pitino disciple, Kevin Keatts, NC State plays an up tempo style of basketball that, defensively, applies extraordinary pressure on the ball-handler (sound familiar)? Similar to a UNC, the Pack score by committee. From sophomore forward Ian Steere up to senior guard Torin Dorn, NC State boasts 10 players who average between 4 and 14.3 points per game. Keatts’s squad, while skilled and deep, isn’t particularly efficient but are more-so defined by one word, aggression. The Wolfpack use their accelerated tempo, ball pressure and singular mentality to score an NCAA 6th best, 86.7 points per game. In a game at home on January 12th, Kevin Keatts lost for the week, his 3rd leading scorer and top assist man, Junior Point Guard Markell Johnson. Johnson took a spill going in for a layup and mildly injured his back. Johnson found himself sitting out for their two most recent contests. In that time NC State unexpectedly lost to league bottom feeder, Wake Forest last Tuesday. The Wolfpack then followed that up only slight more impressively, narrowly escaping with a win against Notre Dame in South Bend on Saturday. NC State’s performances without their starting Point Guard cost them only slightly in the polls last week, as they fell four spots, from #17 to #21. The only official news that has been released is that there’s no news at all. NC State’s staff are unsure of a time table for his return, noting he could be back Thursday or not for multiple weeks. Given the low acuity of the injury and the importance of this game, we very well could see Markell Johnson’s return. They’ll certainly need him. With the visitor aiming for top tier conference wins and the Cards surging up the ACC boards, Thursday’s matchup should be a traditional, up and down ACC slugfest. Looking forward to what should be the day’s best game, here is Big Red Louie’s “What to Watch For: Louisville/NC State.”<doc-sep>When you play on the road, turns out it’s difficult to overcome a lot of mental errors, and it was those mistakes that defined NC State’s 84-77 loss at Louisville. The outcome could have been different; everything could have been different but for the errors. NC State turned the ball over 23 times on Thursday night, 23 times it just let the Cardinals off the hook without a challenge. Some of the officiating was bad, sure, but mostly it was State just doing dumb shit; dumb shit for which there is no accounting on the road. So it is. This was a game for the taking, and State once again fought back from down double figures to make the final condition of it a disappointment. These are not easy games on the road, especially these are not easy games against teams that are fully realized urgency. They’ll be fine. But it’s unfortunate that this team essentially dribbled this game off of its own shoes—there was plenty Louisville did well, and plenty that State just decided to lob on its own back. There’s no accounting for that. The very bottom line is it’s hard to get away with finishing -8 in turnover margin and still win on the road. You kick it off your shoe enough times and it counts.<doc-sep>
After a five-day layoff from the court, No. 21 NC State heads to Kentucky to take on No. 23 Louisville in the KFC Yum Center Thursday night. With an 8 p.m. tipoff, we're less than 12 hours away as the Wolfpack looks to move to 2-1 on its three-game road trip before returning to PNC Arena on Saturday. The Cardinals started out 9-4 during non-conference play, but have rattled off four out of five wins to start ACC play and catapult themselves into the AP Poll for the first time all season. Under first-year head coach Chris Mack, Louisville is in a similar situation to the Pack last season -- essentially looking to play spoiler every time out in the conference. Before the ACC showdown tips off, here's a look at the full game information, scouting report and player to watch for the Cardinals on Thursday night. No. 21 NC State vs. No. 23 Louisville Game Info Tipoff: Thursday at 8 p.m. ET Where: KFC Yum Center TV: Raycom Sports Network Live Stream: WatchESPN Live Stats: SideArm Stats Scouting Report: Louisville When it comes to the ACC, road games are always going to be tough. Road games against a Top 25 team with momentum on its side after a three-game winning streak ahead of a stretch of two games in three days? Yeah, there's really not a more difficult situation in the conference. To this point, the Cards have knocked off two ranked opponents in Michigan State and UNC-Chapel Hill. And while they're off to a 4-1 start in ACC play, three of those wins came against lower-tier teams like Georgia Tech, Miami and Boston College that are a combined 6-11 in conference play. The Cardinals are getting the job done with an offense that is averaging 83.6 points per game in conference play and comes in teeming with confidence with blowout wins in three of its last five contests. Player to Watch: Jordan Nwora We could have gone with Christen Cunningham here given his importance to the Louisville program at the point guard position, but Jordan Nwora is playing at an All-ACC First Team level. There's no question that he's the best offensive weapon the Cardinals have and he's also extremely important on the boards. Nwora leads the Cards in both points per game (18.5) and rebounds per game (8.1) and is shooting at a 50 percent clip for the year -- including going 41.1 percent from behind the arc. Guarding a player that's 6-foot-8, 215 pounds with that sort of inside-out game can be a tall task for any defender. Nwora is more than likely going to rack up points -- he's only been held to less than 15 points in five games all year -- but the Pack will have to force him to take deep, contested shots. If State can force him into low-percentage shots and limit his effectiveness on the boards, the Cards don't have another player averaging more than seven rebounds to make up the deficit inside.