NCSU Downs Tar Heels, 33-21

Saturday, November 25

Raleigh, N.C.

3:30 PM

North Carolina

3-9 , 1-7

NC State

8-4 , 6-2

1st

2nd

3rd

4th

North Carolina

NC State

Photo by: Grant Halverson

November 25, 2017 | Football

Box Score Final Stats

by Joedy McCreary, Associated Press

RALEIGH, N.C. — Nyheim Hines rushed for a career-best 196 yards and two long touchdowns, and North Carolina State beat North Carolina 33-21 on Saturday night.

Jaylen Samuels added a game-sealing 10-yard score, and Ryan Finley ran for two short scores and was 20 of 30 for 204 yards. The Wolfpack (8-4, 6-2 Atlantic Coast Conference) bounced back from a brutally dramatic loss at Wake Forest and closed the regular season by winning two of three.

In each of N.C. State's last three victories, dating to a win at Pittsburgh in mid-October, Hines has come through with at least one long scoring play and he helped decide a largely disjointed, sometimes chippy renewal of the neighborhood rivalry in which the teams were flagged a combined 23 times for 235 yards.

In this one, Hines burst through the right side and raced 54 yards into the end zone to put the Wolfpack up 19-14 with 40 seconds left in the third quarter. Then he ran 48 yards for another TD on N.C. State's next possession, and the Wolfpack converted the two-point try to make it 27-13.

Nathan Elliott's third touchdown pass, a 1-yard toss to Jordan Cunningham, pulled the Tar Heels within six with 8:16 remaining. N.C. State chewed up nearly seven minutes on the drive that ended with Samuels' score with 1:33 to play.

Elliott finished 21 of 45 for 277 yards for the Tar Heels (3-9, 1-7), whose two-game winning streak ended. He also threw TDs covering 51 yards to Anthony Ratliff-Williams and 24 yards to Michael Carter, with that one putting UNC up 14-6 early in the second quarter.

THE TAKEAWAY
North Carolina: This wasn't a season to remember by any means for the Tar Heels, whose roster was besieged by injuries but who did play their best in the final month — with victories over Pittsburgh and Western Carolina sandwiched by moral-victory losses to No. 2-for-now Miami and to the Wolfpack. Elliott, Ratliff-Williams and Carter once again showed why they'll be the foundation of the offense going forward.

N.C. State: It looked shaky for about 2½ quarters, but credit the Wolfpack for not letting Wake Forest beat them twice. It helped immensely that they had Hines, who was injured while fielding a punt in the second half of that loss in Winston-Salem but easily surpassed his previous career best of 115 yards set against Syracuse in September and broke the 1,000-yard mark for the season. He also helped the Wolfpack outrush UNC 292-83.