WRAL Sports Fan

WRALSportsFan

N.C. State Gets a Rare Easy Win In NCAA Triumph Over Utah

By Tim Peeler, GoPack.com

Mar 24, 2008

OGDEN, Utah – Ahead by more than a dozen points late in the game, a group of confused N.C. State players looked over to their coach on the sidelines for help.

“Coach,” they wondered, “who do we foul?”

“Not this time,” was the answer from N.C. State coach Jim Valvano. “That was the other five post-season games.”

So this what a blow-out feels like, they sighed, en route to a 75-56 victory over Utah in the NCAA West Region semifinals. It was a near flawless game, in which senior guard Dereck Whittenburg exploded for 27 points and Valvano never had to direct his team to put the opponent on the foul line. In fact, Utah barely saw the charity stripe all game long, hitting just two of five attempts, as the Wolfpack limited itself to just eight fouls on the night.

It’s been a while – the 130-89 regular-season finale win over Wake Forest on March 5, to be exact – since the Pack has been able to breathe easy at the end of a game. Their reward? The chance to face Virginia and All-America center Ralph Sampson for a fourth time this season, this time with a trip to Albuquerque, New Mexico, and the Final Four on the line.

The Cavaliers, who earned a 95-92 victory over Boston College with Sampson on the bench most of the night, are still likely be seething over the ACC championship game, which, in Sampson’s words, the Cavaliers practically handed to the Wolfpack, gift-wrapped and name-tagged.

But that’s a motivation for another day. Thursday, the Wolfpack relished its seventh consecutive win, this one against a team that had hoped to out-Cinderella Valvano’s team of destiny. The Running Utes, once 7-10 this season, entered the tournament with the worst regular-season record of any team in the 52-team field. Wins over Illinois and UCLA made them believe they were the underdog capable of surprising the college basketball world, especially playing in front of a partisan crowd just 25 miles from home.

And for awhile, it appeared that this would be another crazy twist on the Wolfpack’s wild ride, in which Valvano’s team had won five games by a slim 14 total points. The Utes held Thurl Bailey scoreless in the first half, then scored the first six points of the second half to take a 32-30 lead. Whittenburg finally missed one of his high-arching shots, and the Utes grabbed the rebound, heading down the court on as fast a break as this plodding team could muster.

But Utah’s Angelo Robinson was called for a foul on Whittenburg’s shot, and the senior, who did not miss a free throw all night long, quickly tied the game. The Wolfpack was flawless the rest of the way, hitting 15 of its 19 second-half field goals (78.9 percent) and committing just five turnovers.

“They stuck it right in our faces,” said Utah forward George Furgis. “You can’t beat a team that shoots like that. Not Virginia, not Boston College, not anybody.”