North Carolina State University Athletics
NC State Advances to Third Round of the NIT
3/21/2000 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Damien Wilkins scored 11 points against
Arizona State. (AP Photo) |
By Tony Haynes
Thanks to a little bit of defensive trickery, NC State's string of second round losses in the NIT came to an end on Tuesday night. The Wolfpack used a box and one defense to hold Arizona star Eddie House in check over the last 17-minutes and went on to post a 60-57 victory over the Sun Devils in front of 14,982 fans at the Entertainment and Sports Arena.
The Pack will host Mississippi in a third round matchup on Thursday night. The winner will earn a trip to the NIT Semi-finals next week in New York.
House, who was named PAC-10 Player of the Year after averaging over 22-points per game this season, was single-handedly carrying the Sun Devils on his shoulders until NC State went with its defensive switch early in the second half.
After House nailed a three-point basket to give Arizona State a 34-30 lead with 16:52 left, Wolfpack head coach Herb Sendek decided to reach into his bag of tricks and pull out the box and one defense his team had been working on for the last week.
The decision worked like a charm. House, who scored 26-points in the first 23 minutes, could only manage six the rest of the way. As a team, Arizona State was only 3-of-13 against the box.
"It was a very challenging game for our team," Sendek said. "Eddie House is a phenomenal player. We went against our normal grain and went to the matchup and one. It was pretty effective for us."
When NC State went to its box and one or matchup and one as Coach Sendek called it, four players would play a matchup zone while either Damien Wilkins or Anthony Grundy face-guarded the deadly House.
"Luckily we had a week to prepare," said Sendek. "Our guys had to learn that defense in a weeks time and implement it in the game. I give them great credit for that."
And give Sendek and his staff a lot of credit as well. Since Sendek took over four years ago, NC State is 13-0 when it has four or more days to prepare for a game.
Led by Houses 21 points, Arizona State grabbed a 29-26 advantage at the half. The Sun Devils frustrated NC State with a 3-2 zone that, at times, had the Pack looking dazed and confused.
In the second half, the Wolfpack made more of a concerted effort to get the ball inside, and no one took advantage of that plan more than Kenny Inge. The 6'8 junior finished with 19 points to go along with 12 rebounds.
It was an Inge dunk with 55.6 seconds remaining that gave NC State a 58-57 lead.
On the other end, House saved Arizona State possession of the ball when he rebounded a Chad Prewitt miss with 38.0 seconds left. Following a time out, the Sun Devils attempted to run the clock almost all the way down before throwing up a potential game-winning shot.
That strategy backfired when guard Alton Mason was called for traveling with 8.4 seconds left. One second later, Wilkins was fouled to stop the clock. When the 6'6 freshman made both free throws, NC State was up 60-57. The Sun Devils had one more shot and there was no doubt who they would be looking for.
Mason raced the ball up the floor and fed House, whose open three-point attempt at the horn bounced off the rim. Just like that, the Wolfpack's three-year streak of second round losses in the NIT was over.
"We've been talking about getting past the second round of this tournament," Inge said. "Tonight we finally did it. We came out and played with a lot of emotion and gave it all we had."
Wilkins, who had 11 points, was the only other NC State player to reach double-figures. Thornton, who was playing his first game since suffering a sprained ankle in the ACC Tournament ten days ago, added seven points and seven rebounds in 25 minutes off the bench.
As usual, House was the show for Arizona State. His 32-point outburst marked the eighth time this season that he has scored 30 points or more in a game. The next high scorer for the Sun Devils was reserve forward Donnell Knight, who finished with nine.
NC State shot 39.2 percent from the field while Arizona State made 40.4 percent of its shots. The Sun Devils turned the ball over 20 times. The Pack finished with 15 turnovers against a team that was forcing an average of 20 per game.
