North Carolina State University Athletics
NC State
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UNC Asheville
Wolfpack Defeat UNC Asheville, 92-54
12/15/2001 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Dec 15, 2001
By Tony Haynes
Raleigh, N.C.--Moments after his team had polished off a 92-54 victory over UNC-Asheville in front of 9,840 fans at the Entertainment and Sports Arena on Saturday, NC State head coach Herb Sendek said his team had performed in "peaks and valleys."
As evidenced by the final score, the Wolfpack had more than enough to peaks to offset its valleys.
Senior guard Anthony Grundy continued his stellar play by scoring 18 points to go along with six rebounds and six assists. After picking up three personal fouls in the opening half, sophomore forward Marcus Melvin bounced back to produce 16 points and nine boards. Freshmen Julius Hodge (10 points, nine rebounds) and Josh Powell (10 points, six rebounds) also tallied double-figures as the Wolfpack improved its record to 8-2.
NC State hit its first peak over the first 12:30 of the game when it took advantage of 10 UNC-Asheville turnovers to build a 28-6 lead. The early spurt included two three-point baskets by freshman forward Levi Watkins (eight points, five rebounds) and one each by Grundy and Hodge. Powell added three baskets inside as the Pack seemed to be able to get whatever it wanted against a mixture of zone and man-to-man defenses.
But UNC-A didn't quit. A burst off the bench by Brandon Carter, who scored all eight of his points in the first half, and Bryan McCullough (13 points) helped the Bulldogs claw back within 11 (36-25) at intermission.
"I would have liked to have maintained that same level of dominance that we had early, but basketball IS a game of runs," Sendek said. "UNC-Asheville has a good coach, good players and a lot of pride. As much as we'd like to say that we're going to dominate every possession over 40 minutes, that's probably not realistic either."
Over the first few minutes of the second half, UNC-Asheville got as close as eight before Grundy, Hodge and Melvin pulled the Pack out of the valley and up another peak. Pressing after made baskets, NC State converted several easy opportunities after turnovers and quick shots to go on a 16-5 run top open up a 53-24 advantage with just over 15 minutes left.
Grundy, who scored 12 of his 18 points in the second half, seemed to be everywhere as NC State continued to build on its lead. Whether it was scoring on drives, hitting three-pointers or causing turnovers, the junior from Louisville always seemed to be there to provide a spark, just as he had done in last week's impressive win at Syracuse.
The Wolfpack finished with a flurry, outscoring the Bulldogs 25-9 over the final seven minutes to make it a blowout.
"This is a pretty darn good State team," said Biedenbach, a former NC State player and assistant coach. "They're a lot more physical than I suspected and a lot bigger than I suspected. It's a team that I think can be special."
The Wolfpack's rebounding was special on Saturday. NC State finished with an overwhelming 51-30 advantage on the boards. Nineteen of those rebounds came on the offensive end as Hodge, Melvin, Grundy and Powell did a good job of slicing through the UNC-Asheville zone to give the Wolfpack numerous second chance opportunities.
"A next step for our team is to become a more aggressive rebounding unit," Sendek said. "We really haven't had that dimension, with the exception of Josh Powell every now and then."
Although he was just 3-of-10 shooting, Miller finished with seven assists and only one turnover to go along with four steals. Coming into Saturday's contest, the senior point guard had the ACC's best assist-to-turnover ratio at 4:1.
Overall, the Wolfpack made 45.1 percent of its shots (32-71) and was 14-of-36 from three-point range. The Bulldogs were just 18-of-50 from the field for 36 percent. UNC-Asheville also had 20 turnovers that NC State converted into 23 points.
