A career-high 25-point scoring night by senior C.J. Williams and hot starts to the first and second halves weren’t enough for NC State Saturday against No. 1 Syracuse. The Pack did a number of things well in its toughest test of the season, including 13 assists by sophomore Lorenzo Brown and 57 percent shooting from the floor, but it ultimately wasn’t enough against 11 made three pointers and 46 bench points for the Orange.

“Most of the game, we were doing some really good things,” Coach Mark Gottfried said. “We also had times when we didn’t do things well. We have to learn to sustain our good moments throughout the game.”

State led 12-4 in the early going and played well enough early in the second half to keep it interesting, pulling to 63-61 with 8:47 to play. But the Pack couldn’t keep pace with the Orangemen, who used a pair of crucial runs to keep the Pack at bay. Down 29-23 in the first half, Syracuse scored the game’s next 23 points to prove worthy of their high ranking and to make it 47-33 at halftime.

“I think it’s the best they have shot from the three-point line since they have started playing,” Brown said. “We weren’t expecting that and that is what hurt us, that and our turnovers.”

But the Pack responded by starting the second half on a 13-1 run that made it 48-46.

“We never give up, that is our motto,” Brown said. “We talk about it every game, if we’re down, we have to come back. There’s no giving up for us.”

Thanks to big nights by Williams and Brown and 13 points from sophomore C.J. Leslie, State stayed in it until shortly after the nine-minute mark. That’s when Syracuse pulled away on a pair of three pointers from Scoop Jardine and a dunk and three by Dion Waiters to make it 74-63 with 6:47 remaining. The Pack was effectively out of it at that point, but Gottfried came away as impressed with Syracuse as upset about the loss.

“Once you lose a game, you sit up here and say, ‘They’ve got a great team, yada, yada, yada,'” Gottfriedsaid. “I’ve been around a lot of good teams, guys, and that team right there might be playing on Monday night in April. We did a lot of good things tonight. We just didn’t do enough of them.”