North Carolina State University Athletics
NC State Holds Off Catamounts
12/30/1999 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
By Tony Haynes
NC State closed out December, the year 1999 and the 20th century with a 79-53 victory over Western Carolina on Thursday night.
The Wolfpack (9-1) can now set its sights on the ACC opener against Maryland next Thursday.
"I told our team that we must take this first part of the season and put it in the attack," said Pack coach Herb Sendek. "The slate is now wiped clean. Now we move on to the next box of our focus."
On Thursday, NC State continued its defensive and rebounding prowess against the small but quick Catamounts. The Wolfpack outrebounded Western (7-4) by a 53-32 margin. More significantly, it was 19 to eight on the offensive glass.
Damon Thornton led the board crashing convention with a 13-rebound performance. The redshirt junior added 11 points for his second straight double-double.
"I'm making a strong effort to go to the boards more often," said Thornton. "It's been a goal of mine to be in double digits every game. Offensively, I'm trying to help out as much as I can."
Thornton was one of five players in double figures on Thursday. Big man Ron Kelley paced the Pack with 17-points. 15 of those points came in the second half when NC State slowly pulled away with a punishing inside attack. Kenny Inge and Anthony Grundy bounced off the bench to add 15 points apiece. Guard Justin Gainey finished with 10 points, four assists and no turnovers.
After grabbing a 36-27 halftime lead, the Wolfpack survived a mild scare when the cat quick Catamounts went on an eight to nothing run to get within six on two occasions. It was 43-37 NC State when Grundy fed Thornton for a driving layup at the 15-minute mark. Moments later, Grundy nailed a clutch three to push the margin out to 48-37.
Those two baskets started what would become a 27-7 Wolfpack run. By the time the nine spurt had ended, NC State held a 70-44 lead.
They just physically took us out of what we were trying to do, especially in the second half," said Western Carolina coach Phil Hopkins. "I think State is a great defensive team. They are as well schooled in the fundamentals of defense as any team that I have ever played against. The only way we were able to score against them was in transition. Every time we got in a half court set, we couldn't score."
NC State, which had come into Thursday night's game as the ACC's top team in scoring defense, field goal percentage defense and steals, held the Catamounts to 35.5 percent shooting. Perhaps more importantly, Western Carolina connected on just two of 17 three- point shots. WCU had shot the three very well in winning seven of its first ten games.
Leon Davis, who had 14 points, was the only Western Carolina player to hit double figures.
A crowd of 13,190 viewed the contest at the Entertainment and Sports Arena.
