Friday, November 18
St. Thomas, Virgin Islands
6:00 p.m.
NC State
3-0
85
vs
72
Montana
0-3
1
2
F
Montana
40
32
72
NC State
38
47
85
Pack Controls Second Half to Defeat Montana
11/18/2016 8:39:00 PM | Men's Basketball
NC State outscores Grizzlies by 15 in second period to win going away
NC State pulled away from Montana in the second half to win its Paradise Jam opener, 85-72, at the USVI Sport and Fitness Center on Friday evening.
The Pack were led by Abdul-Malik Abu who had a career-high 25 points and freshman Dennis Smith, Jr., who added 21 points. Torin Dorn also reached double-figures with 16 points.Â
NC State and Montana were tied at 51 with 12:48 to play when the Pack went on a 12-2 run to seize control of the game. BeeJay Anya started the run by knocking down two free throws to give the Pack a lead it would never relinquish. After a Markell Johnson block, Dennis Smith knocked down a jumper to give NC State a four-point lead. Montana stopped the bleeding with a bucket to cut the lead to two, but would never get closer than that the rest of the way as Abu scored back-to-back buckets and Smith hit two free throws to give the Pack a 63-53 lead with 9:38 to go. Montana would never get closer than eight points the rest of the way.Â
After giving up 51 points in the first 27 minutes of the game, NC State tightened up the defense from the 12:48 mark to the 2:28 mark of the second half, giving up only 10 Grizzly points to build a 16-point lead.
Montana had a 40-38 lead at halftime after a back-and-forth first half that saw 11 lead changes and no team with a lead bigger than five points. The Grizzlies had their biggest lead of the game at 5-2 in the opening moments of the game.
Johnson had the best game of his short career with the Pack as the Cleveland, Ohio native scored nine points on 4-of-5 shooting and added six assists, four steals and one block with zero turnovers in 27 minutes off-the-bench.
The Pack advance to the winner's bracket of the Paradise Jam and will play #22/20 Creighton on Sunday at 8:30 p.m. EST. The game will be televised on CBS Sports Network.
Â
The Pack were led by Abdul-Malik Abu who had a career-high 25 points and freshman Dennis Smith, Jr., who added 21 points. Torin Dorn also reached double-figures with 16 points.Â
NC State and Montana were tied at 51 with 12:48 to play when the Pack went on a 12-2 run to seize control of the game. BeeJay Anya started the run by knocking down two free throws to give the Pack a lead it would never relinquish. After a Markell Johnson block, Dennis Smith knocked down a jumper to give NC State a four-point lead. Montana stopped the bleeding with a bucket to cut the lead to two, but would never get closer than that the rest of the way as Abu scored back-to-back buckets and Smith hit two free throws to give the Pack a 63-53 lead with 9:38 to go. Montana would never get closer than eight points the rest of the way.Â
After giving up 51 points in the first 27 minutes of the game, NC State tightened up the defense from the 12:48 mark to the 2:28 mark of the second half, giving up only 10 Grizzly points to build a 16-point lead.
Montana had a 40-38 lead at halftime after a back-and-forth first half that saw 11 lead changes and no team with a lead bigger than five points. The Grizzlies had their biggest lead of the game at 5-2 in the opening moments of the game.
Johnson had the best game of his short career with the Pack as the Cleveland, Ohio native scored nine points on 4-of-5 shooting and added six assists, four steals and one block with zero turnovers in 27 minutes off-the-bench.
The Pack advance to the winner's bracket of the Paradise Jam and will play #22/20 Creighton on Sunday at 8:30 p.m. EST. The game will be televised on CBS Sports Network.
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Team Stats
MON
ST
FG%
.500
.588
3FG%
.278
.286
FT%
.846
.778
RB
24
26
TO
18
13
STL
0
10
Game Leaders
Pts
25
FGM
8
3FGM
0
FTM
9
Pts
21
FGM
6
3FGM
2
FTM
7
Pts
16
FGM
8
3FGM
0
FTM
0
Pts
9
FGM
4
3FGM
1
FTM
0
Players Mentioned
F
/ Men's Basketball
F
/ Men's BasketballG
/ Men's BasketballG
/ Men's BasketballG
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