North Carolina State University Athletics
NC State
Temple
Temple Tops NC State, 76-54
2/15/2003 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Feb. 15, 2003
By Tony Haynes
Philadelphia, Pa.--NC State left the City of Brotherly Love on Saturday night with very few fond memories of its brief stay on Valentine's weekend. Certainly, there was nothing to love about a 76-54 loss to Temple. The Wolfpack couldn't shoot, couldn't rebound and often had a difficult time defending the Owls, who won for the fifth time in seven games. The loss, which dropped NC State to 13-8 overall, put a serious dent in the Pack's NCAA Tournament hopes. A 19-0 run that started with 3:27 left in the opening half and continued until the 14:41 mark of the second half gave the Owls all the impetus they would need in front of 7,254 fans at the Liacouras Center.
Pacing Temple was Maurice Collins, who finished with 18 points on a 4-of-8 shooting touch. David Hawkins added 16 points, six rebounds and assists, while Alex Wesby and reserve Brian Polk contributed 10 apiece.
Along with shooting just 28.1 percent in the second half and 34.6 percent for the game, NC State was pounded on the boards by a 43-31 margin. Temple also grabbed a total of 16 offense rebounds, nine of which came in the opening half when the Owls hit on just 33 percent of their field goal attempts.
NC State's leading scorer, Julius Hodge, had more turnovers by himself (10) than Temple had as a team (9).
"We really got taken out in the first half on the backboards," said Wolfpack head coach Herb Sendek. "They had us 18-9 in overall rebounds and had nine second shots. There were probably a handful of other offensive possessions where we didn't contest a 3-point shot. Coming out in the second half, we couldn't get our offense untracked. We turned the ball over too much and continued to have a very difficult time putting the ball in the basket."
The game and the momentum made a sudden change with just over three minutes remaining in the first half. With NC State leading by seven points, Polk ignited an 8-0 run to end the half with a pair of 3-point shots. And even when the Owls missed, they always seemed to grab an offensive rebound and finish with a stick-back. After leading 25-18 with 3:27 left in the first half, NC State would not score again until Levi Watkins broke the drought by draining a 3-point shot with 13:34 left in the game. In other words, the Wolfpack went almost 10 minutes without a field goal, missing 10 consecutive shots along the way, allowing Temple to grab a 37-25 lead before Watkins finally ended the skid.
By then, however, the damage was done as the Wolfpack would get no closer than nine points the rest of the way. Bolstered by its end of half success, Temple played with energy and confidence after the break while the Pack struggled to do much of anything positive.
"I think coming out in the second half they hit some baskets and we didn't hit any buckets for a long stretch," said Wolfpack guard Cliff Crawford, who was just 1-of-3 shooting for four points. "Anytime you have that going on, obviously, it's not going to work out in your favor."
Against the Owls' vaunted matchup zone this season, teams were shooting better than 41 percent from long-range. But on Saturday night, NC State struggled from the arc, hitting just 7of-27 for the game. Over its last four games, the Wolfpack has knocked down just 22 percent (21-of-95) of its 3-point attempts.
Along with allowing Temple to get numerous second shots, the Pack's rebounding woes created another problem: fewer defensive rebounds meant fewer transition opportunities. It all added up to a lot of halfcourt possessions against a Temple zone that grew more active as the game progressed.
"We stressed rebounding and transition vigorously going into this game," Sendek said. "We had some of our better opportunities in transition, but for that to happen you have to get stops and you have to block out and defensive rebound. Certainly, there's a chain reaction."
And there certainly seemed to be a chain reaction with NC State's shooting. Once the ball started clanking off the rims late in the first half, the Wolfpack was never able to get things turned around. It's been that way most of the year whenever NC State has ventured away from Raleigh. Now 1-7 on the road, the Wolfpack is shooting less than 39 percent inside foreign venues as opposed to 49 percent at home.
Although Hodge led the Pack with 16, most of his points came late in the game when the outcome was no longer in doubt. The sophomore from Harlem made just 6-of-17 shots, including 1-of-6 from 3-point range. Hodge was the only Wolfpack player in double figures. After scoring eight points in the first seven minutes, junior Marcus Melvin would fail to convert the rest of the way.
