North Carolina State University Athletics
Clemson Stuns #21 NC State, 59-42
1/27/2000 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
By Tony Haynes
Perhaps NC State should be referred to as "the not quite ready for prime time players." For the second time this season, the Wolfpack followed up an appearance in the top 25 with a stunning loss.
And to add insult to injury, the Pack was defeated by the ACC's last place team.
Clemson 59 NC State 42.
"We were totally dominated in every facet of the game," said Wolfpack coach Herb Sendek. We just could not put the ball in the basket in any shape or form."
In most circles, that would be called an understatement. The Wolfpack was just 15 of 50 (30 percent) from the floor and converted on 5 of 14 from the free throw line. In the first half, NC State (13-4, 4-3) could muster only 17 points in a 5 of 20 shooting performance from the floor.
"It's a hard one to take because we prepared so hard during the week in practice," said guard Archie Miller, who led the Wolfpack with 15 points off the bench. "Sometimes these things happen. We just didn't come out and do the things we were supposed to do. Tonight, for some reason, we didn't come ready to play."
By contrast, Clemson (7-12, 1-5) was ready from the opening tap. Veteran forward Andrius Jurkunas made that perfectly clear when he opened the game with a three-point basket from the right wing. And before you can say blizzard, Clemson led 8-0.
From that point on, NC State was trying to dig itself out of a deep hole. As it turned out, the pit was too deep. The Wolfpack never led or was even tied throughout the entire 40-minutes.
"It was our best performance of the year by far," said Clemson coach Larry Shyatt. "We'd like to think we had something to do with NC State's poor offensive showing, but certainly we picked a night when NC State didn't perform well offensively."
The Tigers weren't necessarily burning it up on the offensive end, but thanks to their defense, they didn't need to.
Clemson got 15 points from high-scoring guard Will Solomon, who came in the as the ACC's top scorer. 7'1 center Adam Allenspach added 12-points and seven boards. Jurkunas and reserve guard Edward Scott chipped in with ten apiece.
Miller was NC State's only player in double figures. The Pack's frontline of Damon Thornton, Damien Wilkins and Kenny Inge combined for only six points. And on a night when shots were clanking off the Littlejohn Coliseum rims, the Wolfpack couldn't buy an offensive rebound.
"We could not get an offensive rebound," Sendek said. "We knew they did a good job of blocking out coming into the game, and they certainly sealed us off."
The Wolfpack was only able to rebound just ten of its 50 misses, and on most occasions, those offensive boards did not result in stick backs.
After grabbing a 23-17 lead at the break, Clemson went on a 13 to seven run to open the second half. But thanks three Miller bombs, the Wolfpack started showing signs of life. Miller's third shot beyond the arc brought NC State within eight points at the 11:16 mark. Then, Miller hit again to make it 42-38 with 7:36 showing on the clock.
But that was when the Pack's comeback hopes fizzled out.
NC State would not score again until the 12-second mark. The scoring drought lasted seven minutes and 24 seconds. Clemson ended the game with a 15-4 run to wrap its first conference win of the season.
The Tigers shot 42.6 percent for the game and outrebounded the Wolfpack 40-36. NC State added 19 turnovers against a team that doesn't apply much pressure with its man-to-man defense.
