North Carolina State University Athletics
NC State
The Citadel
Wolfpack Men's Hoops Defeats The Citadel, 63-53
11/23/2001 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Nov 23, 2001
By Tony Haynes
Raleigh, N.C.--After running up against The Citadel Bulldogs on Friday night, NC State's unbeaten basketball team must have felt like it had met a pack of rottweilers at the Entertainment and Sports Arena.
On a night when it made just 5-of-22 three-point shots against an effective 2-3 zone, the Wolfpack eventually found a way to fend off the tenacious Bulldogs, 63-53. And when it couldn't buy a basket from the perimeter, the Pack looked inside to freshman Josh Powell, who delivered with a career-high 16 points and eight rebounds.
A flurry of free throws late in the game allowed guard Archie Miller to become the second NC State player in double figures with 12 points.
"It was a night where we needed to buckle down on defense and I thought our defensive effort was tremendous," said NC State head coach Herb Sendek. "We weren't knocking the shots down and we weren't finishing, so it was a night, if we were going to win, we really had to dig in and play on the defensive end of the floor. I'm not surprised that we had a fight on our hands tonight. We played a veteran team with nine of their top10 players back. Last year they took both Clemson and South Carolina to the wire. We didn't play well on offense tonight but we found a way to win because of good defense."
NC State's streak of shooting 50 percent or better in four straight games was shattered in a big way on Friday. The Wolfpack converted on only 34.6 percent of its shots (18-52) against a zone defense that yielded few uncontested shots. But the Pack responded with maybe its best defensive effort of the year, holding The Citadel to 39.6 percent shooting and forcing 21 turnovers.
The Bulldogs played with the type of tenacity and effort that one would expect from a military school. Every time NC State would try to put together a run, The Citadel would find a way to keep itself in the game.
Up by 10 points (33-23) at the break, the Wolfpack tried to pull away in the early stages of the second half with a six to zero run. After Bulldogs guard Alan Puckett cut the lead down to eight with 17:01 remaining, Marcus Melvin swished the nets from three-point range on a dandy feed from Anthony Grundy to push the Pack ahead 16:32 left.
Then Powell got in on the act with a layup and free throw to give NC State a 14 points advantage. But The Citadel fought back. Back-to-back treys by guard Alan Puckett pulled the Bulldogs within six at 45-39 with 11:35 remaining.
That's when Sendek inserted Anthony Grundy, who was suffering through a miserable 2-for-11 shooting night, back into the game for defense. Grundy responded by cooling off Puckett the rest of the way. He also did the best job of getting the ball to the 6-9 Powell, who was roaming the back line of The Citadel zone.
"Anthony would be the first to tell you that he really struggled on offense tonight," Sendek said. "But he made up for it by playing tenacious defense. He was like a blanket on whomever he was guarding. We really needed that because Puckett and [Travis] Cantrell are among the all-time leaders in the history of Citadel basketball for three-point shooters."
Grundy's defensive excellence along with Powell's presence inside allowed NC State to keep The Citadel at arm's length after Puckett had cut the Pack's down to six. A layup by Powell, off of one of Grundy's five assists, gave the Wolfpack a 50-39 lead with 7:17 left. And with the Bulldogs trying to stay in it, Powell knocked down two free throws to make it 53-39 at the 5:55 mark.
Each time Powell caught the ball down low, the smaller Bulldogs had no choice but to foul the rookie jumping jack, who made 8-of-12 shots from the free throw line.
"That young man is going to be some kind of player," Sendek said.
Forward Michael Joseph, who made 6-of-9 shots from the floor, led The Citadel with 13 points.
"I congratulate NC State. I thought they played very hard," said Citadel coach Pat Dennis. "They had to grind it out with us and I knew we had to play that way to have a chance to win. I think we made a couple of good runs but we just never could get over the hump."
Overall rebounding was even on Friday as both clubs finished with 33 boards. NC State had 14 assists and 13 turnovers to finish on the positive side of that ratio for the fifth straight game.
