N.C. State beats UNC-G in men's basketball

North Carolina State University

N.C. State beats UNC-G in men's basketball

By Ty Johnson

Nov 30, 2008

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In Sidney Lowe's first season coaching his alma mater, the UNC-Greensboro Spartans came to the RBC Center looking to spoil the Wolfpack's first game of 2007 and gave State all it could ask for, amassing an 11 point lead with 13:53 left in the contest.

The Pack ended regulation with a 13-2 run capped off by a Gavin Grant three with 10.9 seconds left to force overtime and held the Spartans scoreless in overtime to escape with a 95-93 victory.

This season against the Spartans, N.C. State's defense again keyed the team to victory, but this time it wasn't even close, as the Wolfpack defeated UNCG, 79-52. State improved to 4-0.

From the opening tip, State was hot from behind the arc. Point guard Javier Gonzalez hit a three-pointer on State's first possession and the Pack never looked back, shooting 41.7 percent from the field in the first.

"We've got shooters," Courtney Fells said. "We did a great job moving the ball against their matchup zone and we were able to knock down the shots."

Lowe said poor shot selection kept State from making an early run, so he asked the team to move the ball around more to get open looks.

"I told our guys to be a little more patient with their shots," Lowe said. "We wanted to swing it and get our outside men open. We did a good job of punching it in and then working from there."

The Spartans kept the game close in the first half until the Wolfpack frontcourt took over and worked the home crowd into the game.

With just under six minutes in the half, Fells slammed home an alley-oop pass from Trevor Ferguson, igniting the crowd and the Pack.

"We knew it was time to buckle down," Fells said. "We wanted to build on the lead that we had."

State slowly widened the margin until a Fells dunk in transition followed by a Ben McCauley steal and dunk with two minutes remaining in the half put the Pack up big. At the break, the Pack led, 39-28.

After intermission, the Wolfpack continued widening its.

"When they pushed the lead in the second half we had to go to a man-to-man," UNC-G coach Mike Dement said. "We tried to trap out of the man-to-man, and when we did they took advantage of some matchups."

Four minutes into the half, a streaking Fells split the Spartan defense and dropped a finger roll into the basket to put his team up 47-32. Dement took a timeout to settle his team, but Lowe's team instead amped up its defense. Fells said the team's defensive focus was to prevent the hot-shooting Spartans from getting open looks from behind the arc.

"We just wanted to limit their touches on the outside and make them be more creative on the dribble," Fells said.

A jumper by Fells and back-to-back steals by Gonzalez and McCauley for transition baskets had Dement again calling his team to the sideline with the score 53-32, but the deficit proved too steep for the Spartans to erase. McCauley, who grabbed a career-high 15 rebounds in the contest, showed poise when he took a lazy pass and ran the floor to finish with a jumper, but said en route to the score, he was thinking what any big man would be thinking with a fast break opportunity.

"Don't do anything stupid to get pulled out of the game," McCauley said. "But the guy backed off me so I had a pull-up jump shot."

Dement said the Spartans' 29 percent shooting was a poor effort, but lamented that a lot of his team's shooting woes could be credited to State's defense.

"We certainly didn't shoot the ball very well, especially in the second half," Dement said. "That had a lot to do with their defense and shot-blocking."

Lowe was proud of his team's defense as well, especially those in the wing positions.

"Our wing people paid attention to detail and played solid," Lowe said. "Our guys chased [UNCG] and made it tough for them."

A lob to McCauley in the paint with 5:34 remaining put an exclamation mark on State's fourth win of the season as the senior stuffed it home to put the Pack up 68-46 and key another UNCG timeout.

"Plays like that really get you pumped up. To have all five of us getting after it on the defensive end, that's going to be tough for a lot of teams to score on."

State used clock control to limit the Spartans' chances at a comeback and stayed undefeated both in season play and all-time against UNCG. The Pack is now 6-0 against UNC-Greensboro.

Immediately State's coaches and players turned their attention to the Wolfpack's next in-state foe - a Saturday matchup with Davidson and Stephen Curry - the Wildcats' guard who has averaged 29.2 points per game thus far.

The game, which will be played in Charlotte, will pit State against a team that lost by one in the RBC Center last year and went on to defeat Gonzaga, Georgetown, and Wisconsin in the NCAA tournament before losing out of the eventual champion Jayhawks of Kansas by two points.

All things considered, it was no wonder Lowe and McCauley's thoughts drifted toward Saturday after the win over UNCG.

"They have several guys that can shoot the basketball," Lowe said. "It's a team that understands who they are and that's a challenge for us."

"We're really looking forward to next Saturday," McCauley said. "It's going to be a great game."

Most Recent Comments

On the Prowl

I think/hope that State surprises folks this year. They got alot of talent on that team and have been playing together for a long time- not a whole lot of retention.

Go Pack!

RE: N.C. State beats UNC-G in men's basketball

When we play against some competition, it'll be interesting. Right now, we should be outrebounding the other team (offensive/defensive boards) and causing turnovers on defense. The other team(all pitiful up to this point when compared to ACC caliber play) should not be able to bring the ball up the court. Our offense should be fluid with crisp ball movement and working to get clean, open looks both in and out of the lane.

I'm just looking at stats- haven't been to the game but the stats are not impressive. I do hope the team is cohesive this year. We'll find out when we have some adversity.

Coach Lowe better step it up this year. The last 2 seasons have not been good. This is his team with his players. He better coach the heck out of them. I didn't like his strategy of leaving McCauley home in Raleigh his senior year while everybody else when on a joy trip to Canada playing the equivalent of high school teams. That was drastic.

State and Fowler arent the only guilty ones of schedule fluffing. Carolina used to be the worst. Duke does it too but they are a little bit smarter (UNC's pretty good at it but not like Duke). They play some lesser teams for the stadium experience (regional NCAA facilities) like they did with Greensboro, Charlotte, Rutgers and the Madison Square Garden deal. State looks to be going only after the W with their pathetic preseason schedule. The games are so padded that it doesn't mean squat if they win. However if they lose or don't win big, it looks awful. I'm not impressed with output thusfar.

I really think that ACC teams shouldn't be playing teams like Winthrop, NCCU, etc. It's a complete waste of time and the regular season is so packed, I wish they would just start playing "real" games in December. It would be awesome if all the conference teams could play each other twice(home and away) in a season. November could still reserved for "non-sense/community relations" games.

RE: N.C. State beats UNC-G in men's basketball

Not a bad game at all (except for a few droughts and bad plays). We're playing more like a team now than we were all season last year. We have some decent talent and some depth. We should do better than last year. We won't be great, but we're not terrible.

RE: N.C. State beats UNC-G in men's basketball

Tracy Smith had a good game. ...we missed a ton of 3s. We had some flourishes of looking good.....we shall see when the going gets tougher. A point guard that can drive would be good to have. Mays does ok but will really have to ramp up in ACC play.

RE: N.C. State beats UNC-G in men's basketball

"escape with a 95-93 victory"

OH BROTHER !!! HERE WE GO AGAIN .... PACK FANS TIME TO HIDE TILL AFTER BASKEBALL SEASON !!!!!!!! ANOTHER NIT INVITE AWAITS US !!!
- Posted by tomnraleigh35

That was LAST year's result. This year we squeaked by UNC-G by 27 points.
- Posted by TruthBKnown Returns

Beating UNC-G by 27 points is nothing to write home about.

WRAL Sports Fan

North Carolina State University