North Carolina State star Terquavion Smith was stretchered off the court on Saturday after a scary moment in their game against North Carolina.
Smith was driving to the rim midway through the second half at the Dean Smith Center when Tar Heels guard Leaky Black missed his block and swatted Smith right in the face as he was in the air. That sent Smith crashing to the floor, where he landed awkwardly on his back and elbow — which was fully extended as he hit the floor.
Smith stayed on the ground for about 10 minutes as medical staff came out to tend to him. He was eventually stretchered off the court with what the team said were elbow and neck injuries. He was seen with an air cast on his right arm, and was taken to a local hospital.
Black was assessed a Flagrant 2 foul on the play, and was ejected. He finished with 9 points and 4 rebounds.
NC State coach Kevin Keatts said he didn’t have an update on Smith after the game, but that he felt they “handled it as best we could.” Though he hadn’t seen the play that led to Smith’s injury, he didn’t think Black made “a dirty play.”
“He’s just an unbelievable kid and unbelievable player,” North Carolina coach Hubert Davis said of Smith, via The Athletic’s Brendan Marks. “You never want to see anybody get hurt or injured … Just didn’t like seeing that.”
Though the update was small, Smith said he was fine on Twitter later on Saturday night.
North Carolina held a 1-point lead at halftime, but surged ahead late in the second half to take the 80-69 win. The Tar Heels used a long 7-0 run that spanned nearly four minutes in the second half to finally pull ahead. R.J. Davis led the Tar Heels with 26 points, and Armando Bacot added 23 points and 18 rebounds in what was their third straight win.
Jarkel Joiner co-led the Wolfpack with 18 points and 4 rebounds, and D.J. Burns added 18 points of his own. The loss snapped a four-game win streak for NC State. Smith is the team’s leading scorer at 19.1 points per game.