North Carolina State University Athletics
NC State
Wake Forest
No. 24 Wake Forest Defeats The Wolfpack, 83-71
3/2/2002 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
March 2, 2002
By Tony Haynes
Winston-Salem, N.C.--With just over five minutes remaining in its final regular season game of the year on Saturday, NC State was right where it needed to be. After trailing by nine at the half, the Wolfpack had stormed back to tie Wake Forest 62-62. But that's when Darius Songaila said enough is enough. Playing in his last home game at the Joel Coliseum, the Deacons' talented 6-9 center ignited an 11-1 run that propelled Wake to an 83-71 victory.
The win left the Deacons (19-11, 9-7) in a third place tie with NC State (20-9, 9-7) in the final regular season standings. But by virtue of its regular season sweep over the Pack, Wake Forest will be the number three seed in next week's ACC Tournament at the Charlotte Coliseum, meaning the Deacons draw a quarterfinal game against No. 6 Georgia Tech in Friday's quarterfinals. NC State, the No. 4 seed, will face fifth seeded Virginia at approximately 2:30.
On Saturday, Songaila was simply too strong, too skilled and too determined for the Wolfpack's smaller frontline players to deal with. Not only did the native of Lithuania put up a double-double with 20 points and a career-high18 rebounds, he also fouled out most of NC State's frontline. By game's end, Ilian Evtimov, Jordan Collins and Marcus Melvin were all on the bench with five fouls.
In snapping a three-game losing streak, Wake also got nice contributions from senior guard Broderick Hicks (15 points, four assists), junior forward Josh Howard (14 points, nine rebounds) and senior forward Antwan Scott (11 points).
"I thought Darius Songaila was the difference in the basketball game," said NC State head coach Herb Sendek. "He once again was outstanding. So much of what we do is geared to stopping him, but even when he doesn't score he opens up opportunities for his teammates. I think he might be the most versatile big man in our conference. He scores in a variety of ways and truly is a special player."
For NC State, freshman forward Julius Hodge put together his best game in a number of weeks, scoring 21 points on a 7-of-11 shooting touch. The 6-8 Melvin hit 4-of-6 from the three-point line to finish with 18 points, while senior guard Anthony Grundy added 16 points, six rebounds and eight assists.
Rebounding was also a big factor on Saturday as Wake Forest held a one-sided 48-30 advantage on the glass. Often playing volleyball after missed shots, the Deacons had 15 second chance points thanks to 17 offensive rebounds.
"That was huge," Sendek said. "We gave up 17 second shots, we didn't do that the first time we played them. It's hard to overcome a team that's that good offensively if you're also going to give them a second crack when you do get a stop."
It was, in fact, an offensive rebound and stick-back by Craig Dawson with just five seconds remaining in the opening half that gave Wake a 45-36 lead at the break. Buckling down on the defensive end, NC State climbed right back into it by outscoring the Deacons 10-4 over the first 5:30 of the second half to make it a one-point game at 49-48.
Over the next several minutes, the teams traded baskets, turnovers and missed free throws to keep it close. Grundy finally pulled the Wolfpack into a 58-58 tie with a three-pointer from the left wing with 7:27 left. Then, following two missed free throws by Songaila, NC State had a chance to grab its first lead of the day. But when Archie Miller missed a long three from the top of the key, the Pack lost out on an opportunity to really make the home fans squirm in their seats on senior day. Two layups by Hodge tied the score twice more--the first coming with 5:59 remaining to make it 60-60. Another Hodge basket seconds later, coming on an underneath out of bounds play, made it 62-62.
But that's when Wake Forest started pounding the ball inside to the powerful Songaila on every trip down the floor. Up 64-63, Songaila scored close to the basket to put his team up by three. Then Howard got into the act, following up a short jumper in the lane with a spectacular rebound dunk to put the Deacs in front 70-63 with 3:17 showing on the clock. And while Songaila and Howard were taking over on one end of the court, NC State couldn't buy a basket on the other, missing six consecutive shots during a crucial four minute stretch after the game had been tied for the last time.
Perhaps the story of the game was best summed up at around the three minute mark when Songaila missed a layup, got the rebound, missed against, got the rebound, put up yet another miss inside before drawing Evtimov's fifth foul.
Over the final five minutes, the Deacons outscored the Pack 21 to nine to break open a close game. And Songaila was usually in the middle of it all.
"We knew we wanted this game just as badly as they wanted it, if not more," said Hodge. "When we tied the game up we were just looking to win it, but they just kept on scoring baskets and we took a couple of bad shots."
After the game was tied for the last time with 5:17 left, Songaila scored 10 points and grabbed eight rebounds the rest of the way. His numbers would have looked even more impressive had he shot free throws up to his normal standards. For the game, Songaila--an 86 percent free throw shooter--was just 8-of-14 from the line.
Overall, Wake Forest was 27-of-37 from the stripe. NC State, by contrast, was just 10-of-15. Hitting just 39 percent of its shots in the second half, the Wolfpack finished 26-of-62 for 41.9 percent. Wake Forest made 45 percent (27-of-60) of its field goal tries. With the win, Wake ran it's winning streak over the Pack to six consecutive games.
" It wasn't necessarily pretty, but as I said from Jump Street, it's never going to be," said first-year Wake Forest head coach Skip Prosser. "We're thrilled to get a `W' against a team of that caliber. We were humiliated on the backboards against Georgia Tech (on Wednesday night). We had an extremely combative practice on Thursday, which I like. I like a good fight every once in a while. Hopefully, that was manifested in the rebounding totals tonight."
