North Carolina State University Athletics
NC State
Manhattan
Wolfpack Stays Unbeaten with 76-60 Victory over Manhattan
12/5/2004 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Dec. 5, 2004
By Tony Haynes
Raleigh, N.C. -Held out of the starting lineup after showing up late for a team meeting, Julius Hodge turned into one of college basketball's best "sixth men" Sunday night, leading the 16th ranked Wolfpack to a 76-60 victory over scrappy Manhattan. Playing 32 minutes in a `reserve' role, the versatile Hodge tallied 17 points, 11 rebounds and seven assists as the Pack upped its record to 6-0. Jordan Collins and Ilian Evtimov chipped in with 13 apiece in front of 14,013 fans at the RBC Center.
Returning to the venue in which they stunned nationally ranked Florida in the first round of the NCAA Tournament last March, the quick, aggressive Jaspers often made life difficult for NC State with a variety of full-court presses and an offensive rebounding prowess that produced 21 second chance points. In fact, Manhattan jumped out to an early 25-18 lead, prompting Wolfpack coach Herb Sendek to take a timeout that proved to be quite effective. After giving his club a little wake-up call on the bench, Sendek saw the Pack go on a 17-0 run to grab a 35-25 lead with just over three minutes remaining in the opening half.
"I just didn't think we were playing," Sendek said about the timeout he took with 9:15 left in the first half. "I basically told them that in so many words. That's probably the best way to leave it."
Said Evtimov: "We didn't play very hard those first couple of minutes of the game. It was time for us to step it up or we were going to have a very, very long night. That was time for us to say enough of this and play harder than they were."
Evtimov and Collins, who were 8-of-11 from the field between them, took advantage of their size advantage inside against a relatively small Manhattan front line. And unlike Purdue, which employed a sagging defensive strategy designed to take away backdoors and post scoring opportunities, the Jaspers chose to play the Pack straight up in the post without offering any help from the perimeter.
While the move limited NC State's 3-point shooting (5-of-18), it also allowed the Wolfpack to get some easy baskets in close.
"It's almost like they dared me to play one-on-one in the post with them," said Evtimov, who made four of his five shots from the floor. "They just gave me the ball inside and nobody was helping. They had a guy down there guarding me who was even smaller than me, so I just took advantage of that."
And on a night when the 3-point shot wasn't going in for NC State, Collins came up with a big 3 that may have put the game out of reach. The Wolfpack was nursing a 60-50 lead with just under five minutes left when the 6-10 senior took a pass from Hodge and drilled one from the top of the key to give NC State some breathing room.
"It was a big one," Sendek said of Collins' shot. "Jordan is really playing solid basketball. He stepped up and was one of the few guys who was perfect at the foul line tonight. That was a huge 3 for us."
NC State's shooting woes from the free throw line did continue on Sunday. Although Collins was 4-of-4 from the line, the Pack as a team was just 11-of-19. Hodge, who made 8-of-15 field goal attempts, missed five of six from the stripe.
But the 6-7 senior from Harlem more than made up for it with his all around play. The Wolfpack especially needed Hodge's rebounding to combat 6-6 freshman C.J. Anderson, who finished with 15 boards to go along with 18 points. Eleven of Anderson's rebounds came on the offensive glass.
Manhattan also got a strong effort inside from forward Arturo Dubois, who had 14 points and seven rebounds before being ejected late in the game for a flagrant foul. The Wolfpack did an excellent job, however, on Jaspers scoring start Peter Mulligan. A 6-5 senior who was averaging 21 points per game coming in, Mulligan scored 11 points on just 2-of-12 shooting from the floor.
"We were really aware," Sendek said of the defensive effort on Mulligan. "Our perimeter defense once again tonight was pretty good. Where we got hurt I thought was the low post defense. We gave up too many catches in the paint and too many second chance points."
But the Wolfpack was able to overcome those shortcomings by shooting 50.8 percent (30-of-59) from the field, while Manhattan converted only 20-of-61 (32.8 percent) for the game.
NC State will take a break for exams this week before returning to the court against Liberty next Saturday, a game that will be played at Reynolds Coliseum.
