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WRALSportsFan

State Loses 78-67 To Wake Forest, Finishes Last In ACC

By J. Mike Blake

Mar 9, 2008

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. — It is not the Les Robinson Invitational, but N.C. State will be playing on Thursday as the last seed in the ACC Tournament, riding the longest losing streak since the Les Robinson days.

The Wolfpack’s current eight-game skid is the longest since Robinson was coaching in the 1991-92 season. With the 78-67 loss to Wake Forest, State (15-15, 4-12 ACC) will be the 12th seed in the upcoming ACC Tournament and will play the No. 5 seed in the opening round.

The Pack, with a lower seed and one fewer win that last season, will be in all-too familiar territory in the tournament.

Last year, State was the 10th seed in the tournament and reeled off three straight wins, becoming just the second team to ever play in the opening round on Thursday and the championship game on Sunday.

Even if the Pack had pulled off the road upset, the scenario would’ve been the same heading into Charlotte. Win four or go home.

“If we won this game or lost it, it wouldn’t have made much difference as far as the ACC Tournament or NCAA Tournament. Nobody wants to lose but you can’t hang your head with this loss,” senior Gavin Grant said. “Twelfth seed, whatever – you play on the first day you play on the first day. Doesn’t matter to me … We know what we got to do.”

Grant led his team in points (16), rebounds (seven) and assists (five) in his final regular season game.

The Demon Deacons, who had no senior players to honor in the year’s final home game, hit each of its first four 3-point attempts and jumped out the early 20-8 lead.

Over the next seven minutes, the Pack surrendered just two points, and tied the game at 22. But no sooner had the lead been negated did the Deacons answer back, taking a 35-29 advantage into halftime.

It was a familiar trend, as State cut the lead to one possession two more times in the second half, but according to coach Sidney Lowe it was his team’s mental mistakes that kept his team from taking the lead.

“We had 16 turnovers and I would dare say 12 of those were really unforced turnovers where we made errant passes or traveled with the basketball,” Lowe said.

Wake’s starting backcourt of Ishmael Smith and Jeff Teague were a thorn in the side of the Pack, combining for 39 points on the day. Teague knifed his way into the lane and got out in transition on several occasions on his way to a game-high 25 points.

“We played well in spurts, as usual, but still not the whole 40 minutes. They kept coming at us with Teague and Smith,” Grant said. “Those guards, they played a big game for them today.”

With the frustrating regular season behind them, State can find solace in the fact that everyone will be on equal terms come Thursday.

“It’s a new season now. Everyone going into this tournament is 0-0, no one has a win in this tournament, no one has a loss. This is an opportunity now,” Lowe said. “We have to make sure we go in there together, play for the right reasons, play hard and play smart and play the way we’re capable of playing.”

Grant, the team’s lone senior who played nearly every minute in last year’s four-game tournament, knows what his team is up against. It will need to win more games in one long weekend than it did in the previous month and a half combined.

“We just can’t lose,” Grant said. “[And] I know that’s hard to say when you’ve lost eight straight.”

Mental mistakes like the ones that killed the Pack against Wake will have to be kept to a minimum in State’s next game to keep dreams of any kind of postseason play alive.

State hasn’t always looked terrible over its losing streak, but its mistakes have kept it from extending periods of good play for a full game.

“We’ve got all the talent in the world but for some reason we can’t put 40 minutes together,” Grant said.

The last win for the Pack was over Virginia Tech, and it gave State a 4-4 conference record at that time. Now that State is .500 overall, it’s now in danger of finishing with a losing season.

“I’ve lost games, but I’ve never had a losing season,” Grant said. “I’ve never lost eight straight games anywhere. It’s tough but you have to deal with it, go on and play the next game and keep fighting.”

“We’ll have to figure out who we’re playing and go in there and try to give them a fight.”