North Carolina State University Athletics
NC State
East Carolina
No. 19 Wolfpack Rips ECU, 100-66
11/19/2004 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Nov. 19, 2004
By Tony Haynes
Raleigh, N.C. - At halftime of Friday night's Black Coaches Association Invitational championship game, NC State star Julius Hodge was 0-for-2 from the floor, while dead-eye shooting guard Engin Atsur was 0-for-4. Oh yea, one more thing: the 19th ranked Wolfpack was ahead by 26 points. Showing an impressive display of firepower all night long, the Pack got 22 points from point guard Tony Bethel and double-figure scoring from four others to post a 100-66 romp over East Carolina. The win, NC State's third in a row to start the season, gave the Wolfpack an early November title in the three-day event.
"We talked about the opportunity to start our season by winning a championship," said NC State head coach Herb Sendek. "It's a great tournament format where our guys had to bounce back on three consecutive nights. It's a good way to start the season."
And the Wolfpack's performance on Friday was certainly worthy of some sort of championship. Shooting 62.7 percent for the game (32-of-51), the Pack was deadly throughout, but especially in the second half when it knocked down 68.2 percent of its shots. Getting a total of 45 assists in the first two games of the tournament, NC State shared the ball well again against the Pirates, tallying a total of 19 assists compared to just 11 turnovers.
"We got beat by a really, really good basketball team tonight," said ECU coach Bill Herrion. "If they shoot the basketball like that, I'm not sure how many people are going to beat them this year, and we're pretty good defensively...or at least I thought we were. We've been guarding pretty well, but tonight the floodgates kind of opened."
And they opened right away.
A larger and more vocal crowd than had gathered for the Wolfpack's opening two games had barely gotten comfortable when the Pack threw a near-knockout punch over the first four and a half minutes. Bethel started it with a long 3-pointer off a nice feed from center Jordan Collins. Then came another long bomb by Levi Watkins, a layup and a 3-ball by Collins and a 15-foot jumper by Watkins.
The 13-0 run to begin the game had the Pack pumped and the crowd roaring its approval.
"Coach was preaching before the game that we had to come out with a lot of energy," said Bethel, who made all five of his field goal attempts in the opening half, including four 3s. "I tip my cap to East Carolina because I knew they weren't going to let down coming into the game; they're a rival right down the street and this is what they wanted. We came out with a lot of intensity on defense and that produced offense for us on the offensive end."
And when the Pack wasn't running and gunning, it was executing in the halfcourt offense, especially when forward Ilian Evtimov was conducting his magic. Along with dishing out three assists in the first half, including a gorgeous bounce pass on a backdoor cut by Bethel, Evtimov dazzled the fans with a nifty up and under move that ended with a little left-handed scoop that went in.
Up by as many as 27 in the first half, NC State never let up, continuing to pour it on with another hot half after intermission. After watching East Carolina comeback from an 11-0 deficit to beat Oregon State on Thursday, the Wolfpack made sure it wouldn't happen again.
"We got out of the gates right away, but that wasn't anything but the very beginning," Sendek said. "ECU has the ability to go on a spurt; they had come back in each of their first two games and had really been an impressive second half team. We continued to keep playing and we knew no lead was going to be safe unless we continued to execute."
Perhaps no one player better personified NC State's effort level than freshman Andrew Brackman, whose energy produced points, rebounds and blocked shots. Finishing with a career-best 12 points, the 6-10 Cincinnati product also hustled his way to five rebounds and was credited with three blocked shots, although it seemed like he got his hands on more than that.
"He just plays so hard," Sendek said. "A couple of the blocks he had today, a lot of guys would have given up on the play. Not only does he give not up, he finds a way to make a spectacular bucket scoring stop. He just did a good job of running the floor and he made his free throws (7-of-8). He had an impressive performance tonight."
Hodge, who had 12 points in the title game, was the tourney MVP after scoring 21 points in each of the first two games. Watkins added 11 and Cameron Bennerman 10 for the Pack, which also outrebounded ECU 36-30.
The Pirates were led by athletic center Moussa Badiane, who had 15 points and seven rebounds. After averaging 21.5 points in East Carolina's first two games of the event, guard Mike Cook was held to just 13 points on a 6-of-17 shooting touch. Overall, ECU shot 39.1 percent from the field.
