North Carolina State University
NC State surrenders 16-point lead, loses to Wake Forest
Published: 2013-01-22 14:06:00
Updated: 2013-01-22 21:27:26
Jan 22, 2013
Winston-Salem, N.C. —
Final: Wake Forest 86, NC State 84: NC State, once leading by 16 points, surrendered the lead in the second half and fell to Wake Forest on Tuesday evening. Freshman Devin Thomas led the Deacon comeback with 25 points and 14 rebounds. Travis McKie (16) and Codi Miller-McIntyre (15) had big second halves to secure the win.
CJ Leslie battled foul trouble throughout the game and missed two big free-throws with 30 seconds left on the clock. He finished with 13. Rodney Purvis (18), TJ Warren (14), Richard Howell (13), and Lorenzo Brown (13) all scored in double-figures in the losing effort.
2nd half, 1:47: Wake Forest 83, NC State 81: This game is going down to the wire, as NC State is rallying around some Rodney Purvis free-throws and a CJ Leslie lay-in to cut the Wolfpack deficit to 2 points with 2 minutes left. Lorenzo Brown and the Pack offense has turned the ball over multiple times in the final minutes to give Wake easy chances for points.
2nd half, 4:24: Wake Forest 80, NC State 72: After going on an 8-0 run, Wake Forest has built a sizable lead with just minutes left to play. Codi Miller-McIntyre continues to hit shot after shot for the Deacons. He now has 15 points. Devin Thomas leads all scorers with 24 points.
State has gone on a scoring drought in the last few minutes, with Rodney Purvis and Scott Wood missing important shots from the field. Lorenzo Brown is shooting 4-for-12 from the field.
2nd half, 7:50: Wake Forest 70, NC State 68: After battling all half, Wake Forest finally has the lead. Codi Miller-McIntyre hit a big go-ahead jumper and Wake has 3 scorers in double-figures. State continues to turn the ball over. CJ Leslie and Lorenzo Brown have 4 personal fouls, and Scott Wood has 3 of his own.
2nd half, 10:33: NC State 64, Wake Forest 62: We have a game here in Winston-Salem, with both teams trading buckets in the second half. Good defense has led to scoring for the Deacons, capitalizing on blocks and steals to run the court and score. For State, Scott Wood made his first 3-pointer of the game and Lorenzo Brown added a layup to keep the lead.
2nd half, 14:07: NC State 57, Wake Forest 53: CJ Leslie has returned to the bench with 4 personal fouls. Wake Forest has looked like a different team in this half, scoring the ball well. Codi Miller-McIntyre hit a big 3-pointer and now has 7 points. Devin Thomas has 18 points and 13 rebounds. Richard Howell, after a quite first half, is making an impact for the Pack with a double-double. He has 11 points and 10 rebounds.
Halftime, NC State 47, Wake Forest 35: CJ Leslie played limited minutes in the first half after picking up multiple fouls, but the Wolfpack have stepped up to maintain a steady lead over Wake through one half. NC State is shooting 56% to Wake's 39%. State is spreading the ball around the court well with 12 team assists.
Lorenzo Brown is running the court well and has 7 points and 7 assists. TJ Warren is leading the game with 12 points. Rodney Purvis (11) and Jordan Vandenberg (6) are also helping on offense. For Wake Forest, Devin Thomas has a double-double with 12 points and 10 rebounds. Travis McKie has added 9 more the Deacons.
1st half, 3:40: NC State 38, Wake Forest 29: Wake has had a hard time defending the Wolfpack in transition throughout the first half. TJ Warren and Jordan Vandenberg have played solid minutes off the bench. Warren leads the game with 10 points while Vandenberg has added 4 points and 2 rebounds. Rodney Purvis added a 3-pointer for an NC State team that still has not put CJ Leslie back in the game after getting 2 quick fouls. The Pack is finding a way to get by in his absence. Travis McKie, Devin Thomas, and CJ Harris have combined for 23 of Wake's 29 points.
1st half, 7:56: NC State 29, Wake Forest 17: The Wolfpack lead is growing despite CJ Leslie and Scott Wood remaining on the bench. Lorenzo Brown has shouldered the bulk of the scoring responsibility with 7 points and 3 assists. TJ Warren is leading the game with 8 points. Brown and Warren both have 2 fouls now as well, forcing Mark Gottfried to use Tyler Lewis and Jordan Vandenberg more than usual. Devin Thomas and Travis McKie have 5 points each for the Deacons.
1st half, 11:42: NC State 19, Wake Forest 13: Foul trouble is becoming a problem for the Wolpack, as Scott Wood and CJ Leslie are each sitting on the bench with 2 fouls. Leslie and Purvis lead the Pack in scoring with 4 points apiece. State is winning the rebounding battle 12-6 over Wake. The leading scorer for the Deacons is Devin Thomas with a game-high 5 points.
1st half, 15:48: NC State 7, Wake Forest 4: Both teams got off to a sloppy start and missed some open baskets, but three Wolfpack players have now scored. Lorenzo Brown has 3 points, and CJ Leslie and Rodney Purvis have 2 apiece. Devin Thomas has Wake Forest's only 4 points.
The 18th-ranked NC State Wolfpack look to continue their climb towards the top of the polls as they visit the Lawrence Joel Coliseum for an Atlantic Coast Conference bout with the Wake Forest Demon Deacons.
NC State has won five straight against Wake Forest, by an average margin of 21.4 points per game. The recent dominance by the visitors has given them a 136-99 all-time series lead.
There is a strong chance Mark Gottfried's squad builds upon its edge in the rivalry as it enters with an impressive 15-3 overall record, including a 4-1 mark in ACC action. After suffering a heartbreaking 51-50 loss to Maryland on Wednesday, NC State bounced back on Sunday with a hard-fought, 66-62 win versus Clemson. The Wolfpack weathered a Tigers' rally after the break as freshman T.J. Warren scored 21 points, while Richard Howell scored the go-ahead basket with 1:56 left. Five players average double figures for the Wolfpack, and Rodney Purvis adds 9.5 points per game to the mix. C.J. Leslie leads NC State in scoring at 15.4 points per game. Howell averages a double- double and leads the ACC in rebounding at 10.6 boards per contest.
2012-2013 Wolfpack individual stats
Although NC State has the 13th highest scoring offense in the nation at 78.9 points per game, it has produced just 56 ppg over its last two outings. The Wolfpack, a 51.1 percent shooting team on the season, made just 31.1 percent of their shots in the game at Maryland before netting just 45.1 percent of their field goals against the Tigers. Veteran leadership is what seems to be setting NC State apart this season. Lorenzo Brown is the ACC's active leader with 472 career assists and Scott Wood has drained 277 3-pointers in his career, which is also the best tally in the league. The Wolfpack are 22-3 over the last two seasons when Wood hits three or more 3-pointers, 13-0 when he hits four or more.
Jeff Bzdelik's Wake Forest unit is nowhere near as efficient as the visitors, scoring 67.4 points per game, while yielding 67.8 ppg. The Demon Deacons dropped to 2-3 in the ACC standings on Saturday after they were clipped 66-65 on the road by Virginia Tech. Although they are returning home where they are 7-2, a lack of scoring depth is going to hinder the hosts chances.
While Travis McKie contributes team-bests of 15.3 points and 8.2 rebounds per contest and C.J. Harris chips in 14.9 ppg, there is not much help elsewhere. Freshmen Devin Thomas and Codi Miller-McIntyre are decent contributors, but their help has barely kept the Demon Deacons above the .500 mark. McKie notched a double-double of 20 points and 10 boards at Virginia Tech and Harris tallied 10 points, but the team could not answer in the closing seconds after Robert Brown's layup gave the Hokies a one-point lead.
Despite the homecourt advantage, Wake Forest will be overmatched in this one. The Demon Deacons have very little chance of hanging with the Wolfpack unless McKie or Harris submit a spectacular performance.
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Most Recent Comments
RE: NC State surrenders 16-point lead, loses to Wake Forest
Fact: We have players that can't play under any sort of pressure. At all. Even remotely. Bad decision after bad decision after forced shot after stupid pass. Our guys don't have the head for the game when it comes down to it. Someone mentioned nerves. I call it mental capacity. BB intelligence. We don't have it.
Even bigger, we have no defense. Someone mentioned earlier and I agree, they don't know how to use their feet! It's like they've never learned defensive fundamentals in all their years. Doubt it's something that can be taught at this point. Coach K consistently has the best defensive teams. Taught? Recruited? Both? Regardless, you can win championships without it.
Free throws. Game on the line, 1-4. Thanks Leslie. Thanks coaches.
Gottfried hasn't proved that he's a good coach. When you see the same pathetic behavior game in and game out, you either have dumb (literally) players, or sorry coaching. Time will tell on this one.
RE: NC State surrenders 16-point lead, loses to Wake Forest
JG,
While I agree with most of your comments, I do have to disagree here. The Pack is showing the same characteristics as in years past. To me, it almost seems like they feel like they can beat anyone without trying because they beat the #1 team in the country. Coach Gott has got to get their heads out of their hind parts quickly or they are going to be in some serious trouble.
With UNC, @UVA, Miami, @Duke and @Clemson coming up, I can easily see a 2-3 stretch with the mentality these guys are functioning with currently. For the sake of ACC hoops, I hope they can turn it around because I sure would like to see the dominance we, as ACC fans, were so proud of for many years!
Can't wait for next year to see three HOF'ers and one soon to be HOF'er square off. What do they have, eight National Titles among them?
- Posted by dbdevils
I see what you're saying, but what separates this Pack team from past teams is that they have the combination of experiences talent - Leslie, Brown, Howell, Wood, and also young talent in Purvis and Warren. State just has too many weapons to tank. Gott is probably the best coach they've had in a long time. Good teams have bad games. I've seen my Heels play games like this in the past, and it's maddening.
TIme will tell. I appreciate your sportsmanship and honesty.
gunn, the team i saw looked like freshman, and the deacs looked like the seniors....Brown choked with dumb turnovers and missed free throws, Leslie choked from the line, at crunch-time, and got beat repeatedly on the baseline(even by the white guy?!) Wood gets the rebound off Leslies free throw brick with 20-sum seconds to go...AND FIRES UP A WEAK JUMPER INSTEAD OF HOLDING FOR THE LAST SHOT?!?!?!?!..not a senior move, at all(and Gott should have been screaming for a time out) ....that was a pizz-poor, pitiful performance by the whole team, playing like punks while wake forest beat them all over the floor....and wth was Gott thinking, by not calling any timeouts when the wheels were falling off???....this is the same kind of game-ending fail that cost them the unc game in the acc tourney, and the kansas game in the sweet 16....just terrible
RE: NC State surrenders 16-point lead, loses to Wake Forest
Always the refs fault when State looses. Nothing new here.
- Posted by Honesty first
shouldn't have to beat the refs too!! Read the stats...
Stats show that WF shot better 2pt., 3 pt. and FG %, had more blocks and fewer turnovers.
RE: NC State surrenders 16-point lead, loses to Wake Forest
Always the refs fault when State looses. Nothing new here.
- Posted by Honesty first
shouldn't have to beat the refs too!! Read the stats...
RE: NC State surrenders 16-point lead, loses to Wake Forest
Always the refs fault when State looses. Nothing new here.
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