WRAL Sports Fan

College Basketball

Jan. 19: Read WRAL's Coverage of State-Miami

By Emily Seck

Mar 9, 2008

RALEIGH, N.C. — There were 3.9 seconds remaining on the game clock, the scoreboard read 77-77 and the game was headed to a second overtime. That is, until Gavin Grant stole the inbounds pass from Miami center Anthony King and hit the go-ahead lay-up to seal the upset victory for N.C. State over No. 21 Miami.

“I thought for a minute I had an orange jersey on,” Grant said. "I was going to guard [Hurricanes guard Jack] McClinton and he just threw it right to me. I was like ‘thank you’. I don’t know what he saw, but I’m glad he saw it. I just put the ball in the hole.”

For the third time this season, Grant proved clutch in the final seconds of a game. He previously hit game-winning free throws against both Villanova and Davidson. Grant finished the game with a team-high 22 points, 18 of which came in the second half.

N.C. State (12-5, 1-2 ACC) hadn’t scored until 17 remaining in overtime, when Courtney Fells hit a three-pointer to put the Wolfpack within one point of the Hurricanes (14-3, 1-2 ACC). Soon after, King went 1-2 from the free throw line to push the score 75-77 in favor of Miami.

Freshman guard Javier Gonzalez then threw a cross-court pass to Grant who missed the tying lay-up. Fortunately for State, freshman center J.J. Hickson was there to tip it in and tie the score, setting up Grant’s game-winner.

The game against Miami marked the Pack’s third straight against a ranked ACC opponent. But the team’s performance in this game was a far cry from its back-to-back double-digit road losses.

“We were just glad to get back home and play in front of our crowd,” coach Sidney Lowe said. “Maybe [in the previous two games] we felt like our backs were against the wall. There were a lot of emotions flying in there. They played hard and they were tough today. That’s the way you have to be in this conference.”

Apparently, State’s players were tired of being called lazy, because Saturday nights win over the Hurricanes was anything but effortless.

They hustled on both ends of the floor. They scrambled for dead balls. And Brandon Costner finally came alive.

The red-shirt sophomore -- who had been held to just four total points in the two previous games – netted 10 of his 16 points in the first half and the Pack took the 36-27 advantage at halftime.

“We need Brandon to knock down those open shots, and he did tonight,” Lowe said. “We count on him. Obviously he’s in there quite a bit. He’s going to get some of those looks. Thank God he knocked them down today. We certainly needed it.”

But despite his efforts, Costner remained on the bench for most of the second half and the entire overtime period.

Lowe made the decision to sit both Costner and starting point guard Marques Johnson in overtime, in favor of Gonzalez and junior Ben McCauley.

“We felt that Ben would help us a little more in the post, both defensively and on the boards. Obviously, on the offensive end, he knows how to execute. We felt we needed to have Ben in there. Javier was playing well. He was playing with a lot of confidence. He was running the show. It was the [players] we felt were going at the time and we wanted to give them a chance to finish it.”

Although McCauley was questionable with an ankle injury coming into the game, he played 17 minutes and tallied 3 points.

McClinton, who leads the ACC in 3-point field goal percentage, paced Miami with 26 points, shooting 4-9 from 3-point range.

Lowe was pleased with the team’s effort in its first ACC win.

“The focus was definitely there,” he said.” We have to take that a step further now in our next ballgame and see if we come out with that same energy.”