The end was always out there, lurking. NC State held it off as long as it could

The end was coming at some point. It was always out there, lurking in the shadows, occasionally showing its face but mostly kept at bay, game after game after game.

And then, early in the second half, you could see it. It was there. Present. As N.C. State missed shot after shot in what should have been the Wolfpack’s window to flip the script on Purdue, the realization settled heavily that the belief and vigor that had carried N.C. State to this elevated stage was ebbing.

The Wolfpack figured out how to defend Zach Edey. It got an unexpected and impactful cameo from Breon Pass when Michael O’Connell pulled a hamstring. It fought through foul trouble. But it couldn’t make a shot when Purdue left the game for the taking.

It is, as they say, a make or miss game. N.C. State fought its way to the very end, to a long-sought and often-denied return to the Final Four after 41 years. But the shots that fell for nine straight games — nine straight wins — didn’t fall in the 10th.

What started with what might have been the loudest “home of the WOLFPACK” at the end of the national anthem on record ended with a 63-50 loss to Purdue — which is now a win away from pulling a Full Virginia, redeeming itself for losing to a No. 16 seed with a national title.

Redemption was not, and will not be, an issue for N.C. State. This team’s place in N.C. State lore — ACC lore — was long ago secured.

In some ways, Saturday’s game had some elements of how the Wolfpack turned around its season, creating its own problems, and then fixing them. Purdue killed N.C. State on the offensive glass early, but the Wolfpack held its own after that. Edey was a problem early, but Ben Middlebrooks fixed that, playing him the ol’ Clemson way: Physically. And the Wolfpack got after the Boilermakers’ guards and forced turnovers, pressing their main advantage.

And yet when it came time to put cold-shooting Purdue to the sword, none of the shots that the Wolfpack has been making along the way were going in. That happened in the first half against Duke, and N.C. State was a near-unstoppable force on offense in the second half. N.C. State was down eight early in the second half Saturday, 39-31, and missed seven straight shots and 10 of 11.

With just under 13 minutes to play, a Casey Morsell layup didn’t fall, Kevin Keatts didn’t get the foul call he wanted, and Lance Jones went down to the other end and hit a 3 to make it 45-33.

And that’s how it ends.

N.C. State arrived at the Final Four with 14 losses, the most of any team ever. It’s a measure of how improbable this was that the Wolfpack fought off a 15th loss for so long.

But it was always going to end. That was the unspoken truth at the heart of this. As wild a ride as this has been, the coaster was going to pull into the station at some point. It always does. March is finite. One team celebrates. And only one.

The Wolfpack staved off that moment as long as it could. A 10th win in 26 days was a bridge too far. It only seemed like N.C. State’s momentum could propel it forward and beyond, achieving escape velocity. Once the Wolfpack started winning and didn’t stop, as victory fed victory, every single one a daring feat defying basketball death, it felt like no walls could contain this.

But March has its own immutable constraints, and as it became April, and as the field continued to winnow, eventually those walls were going to become too narrow for N.C. State to slip through again. It was as much a question of when as if. The kind of somewhere-over-the-rainbow magic that propelled N.C. State 41 years ago is not easily reconjured. This team came as close as any ever could.

So that’s how it ends. For D.J. Horne. For D.J. Burns. For Morsell. If everyone who can come back does come back, along with the addition of Louisville’s Brandon Huntley-Hatfield and incoming freshman Paul McNeill, the future is brighter for the Wolfpack than it was three weeks ago. But the present, this present, is now the past.

The end came quickly, but the Wolfpack’s improbable journey burned as bright as a comet in the night sky for three weeks, until its arc dipped back below the horizon, and everything went dark again. But the trail the Wolfpack traced burned itself into our vision. You can still see it when you close your eyes.

It will fade with every blink until it disappears entirely. But not yet.

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