North Carolina State University Athletics
NC State
Clemson
Grundy, Wolfpack Tame Tigers, 83-54
2/16/2002 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Feb 16, 2002
By Tony Haynes
Raleigh, N.C.--In what is turning into a magical season, NC State's basketball players have proven that they know how to do the little things it takes to win games. The 24th ranked Wolfpack has also demonstrated an ability to learn from the past and move on.
Less than 48 hours after suffering a 37-point blowout loss at Duke, the Pack bounced back in impressive fashion on Saturday in a convincing 83-54 win over Clemson in front of a delighted throng of 16,769 fans at the Entertainment and Sports Arena.
With the win, the Wolfpack (19-7, 8-5) assured itself of a .500 or better finish in the ACC for the first time since 1991.
"Not only did we have to play with less than 48 hours of preparation, but we really got it handed it to us on Thursday night," said NC State head coach Herb Sendek. "Our guys really did some soul searching and went right back to work yesterday. I thought our preparation was outstanding in a short block of time, and we regained a defensive intensity and focus that we needed to have this afternoon."
Defense was certainly the key for NC State, especially in the first half when the same Clemson team that put up 118 points in a double overtime victory over Wake Forest on Wednesday could manage only 20 points at the halfway mark on Saturday. Tigers point guard Edward Scott, who had 30 points and 16 assists against the Deacons, had just five points and zero assists against the Pack. Scott was guarded most of the day by Anthony Grundy, who complimented his defensive effort by putting up 23 points and seven rebounds.
"We knew that he was a great guard and that he was going to be able to get in the paint," Grundy said. "The thing was our big guys stepping up and converging down on him and putting him in traffic so that he couldn't get any easy looks and easy passes."
Said Sendek: "We did a really good job of building walls around the ball. We watched him get 30 and 16 on Wednesday night and the other points that his teammates got were simply because of him. I thought our focus on Ed was outstanding."
The Wolfpack also controlled Clemson shooting guard Tony Stockman, who also had 30 points against Wake Forest. On Saturday, however, Stockman never got it going, scoring just seven points on two of 10 shooting from the floor.
Freshman forward Ilian Evtimov put together another solid outing for NC State, scoring a career high 18 points to go along with six rebounds and five assists.
"I think [Evtimov] is one of the brightest young people in this league, and I mean bright," said Clemson coach Larry Shyatt. "As an opponent you don't often enjoy anything, but I enjoy watching him play basketball."
An Archie Miller three-point shot with just two seconds remaining in the opening half gave NC State a 35-20 at the break. But the Pack, which shot just 32 percent in the first 20 minutes, had relied mostly on its swarming defense to build a 15-point advantage.
But in the second half, the shots started dropping and the lead started building for the Wolfpack. With just under 13 minutes remaining, Marcus Melvin (12 points) got the Pack going with back-to-back three-pointers--both coming off feeds from Evtimov who had drawn the defense on dribble penetration from the high post. The second Melvin bomb put NC State ahead 48-32. Less than a minute later, the Wolfpack moved in front 51-33 when Melvin drained three straight free throws after being fouled by Tomas Nagys on another three-point attempt.
From there, it was showtime. A Crawford three, then another by Grundy gave NC State a 59-37 lead with 8:54 left. From that point on, it was all downhill for the Pack, which moved another step closer to the program's first NCAA Tournament bid since '91.
After being slowed by tendonitis in his left ankle in the previous game, Grundy had an extra bounce in his step after having fluid drained from the ankle on Friday night.
"It felt a lot better compared to the Duke game and the Florida State game this last week," said Grundy, who made 10-of-19 shots from the floor. "This is the best it's felt in a couple of weeks. Hopefully we can keep it going. I think by getting the fluid out of there helped out tremendously. I think I'll be pretty good the rest of the way."
Good news for NC State, and bad news for everyone else. With Saturday's strong performance, the 6-3 senior only strengthened his bid for first team all conference honors.
"It's amazing," Sendek said of Grundy's performance. "He really hasn't practiced very much at all in the last week and a half, even going back to before the Florida State game. He's an amazing young man and right now he's having a great season. Even though he didn't practice and they drained a considerable amount of fluid from his ankle last night, he still was able to play very well for us today."
NC State bounced back from a cold shooting first half and went on to convert on 57.7 percent of its shots in the second half. For the second time this season, the Pack took advantage of Clemson's packed in zone defense by knocking down 14-of-31 three-pointers. State was 15-of-31 from the arc in its 80-79 win at Littlejohn back on January 15. The Wolfpack was also 19-of-21 from the free throw line on Saturday and won the overall battle of the boards, 40-30.
"As much tape as I've seen of Herb's team, I thought this was probably one of the best efforts I've seen from them collectively," Shyatt said. "I didn't really feel it was one guy or two guys, I thought it was a different guy every three or four minutes. I thought they were excellent offensively against both the zone and the man-to-man."
Clemson finished up 20-of-52 from the floor for 38.5 percent. Sophomore forward Chris Hobbs was the only Tiger to reach double figures with 13 points.
