North Carolina State University Athletics
Wolfpack Tops Old Dominion, 87-78
12/2/2000 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
By Tony Haynes
NORFOLK, Va. -- Coming into its home game against NC State on Saturday night, Old Dominion was a team in search of some confidence. But a blistering start by the Wolfpack took away any hopes the Monarchs had of turning their season around on this night.
Attacking the ODU press with a vengeance, the Pack jetted out to a 27-9 lead over the first 10 minutes and never looked back in an 87-78 win over the Monarchs in front of a sparse crowd of 5,009 at Norfolk's Scope.
"I just couldn't be prouder of the way we've continued to weather adversity," said Wolfpack coach Herb Sendek. "Once again it was a real team effort. We really came out of the gate strong tonight and accomplished our goal of getting the ball inside. We were really good at both ends of the floor early."
In the continued absence of injured forward Damien Wilkins, Sendek opened with a three guard line-up for the third straight game. And for the third straight game, he got good results.
In its most impressive offensive half of the season, NC State (4-2) shot an unconscious 69.6 percent from the floor in the opening 20 minutes. At one point, the Wolfpack was 13-of-16 from the floor.
The pre-game strategy was simple: attack the Monarchs' full court press, and do so with the idea of scoring. After repeatedly breaking the pressure, guards Archie Miller, Cliff Crawford and Anthony Grundy would routinely find teammates for open shots. Miller, who was six out of eight from the floor, finished with a season-high 22 points for NC State. Senior forward Kenny Inge (21 points) and Grundy (15) also reached double figures. Crawford tallied a career high 10 assists with zero turnovers.
After Old Dominion's Andre McCullum tied the score at two, a Ron Kelley free throw gave NC State a lead it would not relinquish for the rest of the game. When Inge nailed a pair from the free throw line at the 13:21 mark of the opening half, the Wolfpack had a 21-6 advantage.
"We had it going early," Miller said. "It was a mindset to come in here, attack their pressure and go inside. When we execute well we can score at a high rate. They gave us opportunities to break their press and our big guys were finishing and we were making open shots."
Old Dominion (1-6), a team that thrives on transition basketball, was never really able to get its running game in gear, especially in the first half. With NC State consistently making shots and taking care of the ball, the Monarchs were reduced to running a lot of half court offense.
Without McCullum, who played one season at NC State before transferring, ODU really would have been in deep trouble. The fifth year senior from Whiteville scored 16 of his team's 29 points in the first half.
Leading by 14 at the break, the Wolfpack pushed its advantage out to 50-33 on an Inge free throw with 18:08 left. From that point on, NC State was never really threatened, although a Troy Nance three-pointer did bring Old Dominion within six points at the 9:56 mark.
Seconds later, however, Miller answered with one of his three treys to make it 57-48 NC State. ODU's Ricardo Marsh, who scored all 16 of his points after halftime, hit a layup and three pointer to make it a seven point game. But Grundy retaliated with a three of his own on the other end to push the Pack's lead back out to double figures.
The Monarchs never got closer than seven from that point on.
For the game, NC State was a sizzling 26-of-40 (65 from the floor). Old Dominion converted on 43.9 percent of its field goal attempts. The Pack actually shot better from the field than it did from the free throw line. State finished 29-of-47 from the line. ODU outrebounded the Wolfpack 31-28.
McCullum led all scorers with 23 points on a 9-of-13 shooting touch.
