It seemed like Melvin Council Jr. couldn’t miss.
The senior guard knocked down a career-best nine 3-pointers on the way to a career-high 36 points to lift No. 19 Kansas over North Carolina State, 77-76, in overtime on Saturday night in Raleigh, N.C.
Council entered the contest as a career 27.3% 3-point shooter and was just 5 of 27 from long range this season.
But Kansas (8-3) kept looking for him and NC State (7-4) continued to allow him to get open looks. Council scored the Jayhawks’ final 13 points during regulation, then drilled a 3-pointer on Kansas’ first possession in overtime. He finished the game 13 of 27 from the floor and 9 of 15 from the 3-point arc while adding seven rebounds and four assists.
Kansas also got a boost from Darryn Peterson, who finished with 17 points, five rebounds and four assists before hobbling off the floor with two minutes to play in regulation. Tre White added 12 points.
Darrion Williams led the Wolfpack with 17 points and 10 rebounds. Quadir Copeland piled up 19 points, eight rebounds and six assists while Ven-Allen Lubin had 16 points and 11 boards.
NC State opened the game by shooting just 1 of 16 from 3-point range, but then connected on eight of its next 24 shots from deep range. That sharpshooting was a crucial ingredient to the Wolfpack’s comeback efforts in the second half, where they erased a 6-point deficit to push the game past regulation.
Perhaps most remarkable about NC State’s second-half surge is that it happened largely without Williams, the preseason ACC Player of the Year who went down awkwardly five minutes into the second half and remained on the bench for more seven minutes of game action.
But Williams connected on one of the biggest shots of the contest with 38 seconds to go, swishing his first 3-pointer of the night to tie the game and ultimately push it to overtime. Williams then scored eight of NC State’s 10 points in the extra period.
While Council was on fire from 3-point range, he went just 1 of 4 from the charity stripe that included missing the front end of a pair of one-and-ones in overtime. The second miss allowed NC State to have a look at a game-winning shot with 2.7 seconds remaining, but Williams’ final 3-point attempt missed the mark.
–Field Level Media
