NC State
Clemson
Cold Shooting Wolfpack Falls at Clemson, 60-55
2/18/2004 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Feb. 18, 2004
By Tony Haynes
Clemson, S.C.-- It took only one forgettable 40 minutes of basketball for 13th ranked NC State to go from being the guys who could do no wrong to the kids who couldn't shoot straight. The result was a 60-55 defeat to Clemson, a loss that ended the Wolfpack's five-game ACC winning streak. Raleigh native Shawan Robinson scored 20 points and Akin Akingbala added 10 as the Tigers (10-13, 3-9) claimed their 2nd top-25 victim of the season and 50th overall in the history of Littlejohn Coliseum. The Wolfpack (16-6, 9-3) remains one game behind league-leading Duke in the ACC standings. The Blue Devils fell to Wake Forest later in the evening, 90-84.
The story on Wednesday was quite simple really. Against Clemson's sagging man-to-man defense, the Wolfpack hoisted up 37 3-point shots and connected on only six. Overall, NC State shot just 30.2 for the game after hitting a paltry 7-of-31 (22.6) in the opening half when it fell behind by six points.
Clemson's defensive strategy, which was to clog up the lane to cut off drives and backdoor cuts, wasn't much different from a ploy that backfired on Florida State just eight days ago. Against the Seminoles, however, NC State blew the strategy to smithereens by drilling 14-of-30 shots from the arc.
On Wednesday night, the Wolfpack looked like a different team. Some shots banged off the rim, while others drew nothing but air. The bottom line is that most missed, leaving the Pack with one of its most unsightly offensive performances since, well, since its last trip to the Palmetto State. Back in December, the Wolfpack suffered through similar shooting frustrations in an overtime setback at South Carolina.
"We had open shots and they played us soft," said NC State head coach Herb Sendek. "They were willing to live and die by how we shot the ball and tonight we didn't make them."
No one had brick fever worse than senior forward Marcus Melvin, who missed 12-of-16 shots - including 8-of-10 from 3-point range. Needless to say, Melvin's 12 points came the hard way. But he certainly wasn't alone. Ilian Evtimov, who finished with 13, was 3-of-7 from the floor. Levi Watkins missed all five of his 3-point attempts and was held scoreless. Julius Hodge led the Pack with 15 points on a 6-of-13 shooting touch. But Hodge missed four of his five 3-point attempts. Battling a virus, Scooter Sherrill was 1-of-5 from the arc.
"I couldn't buy one," said Melvin, who was named the ACC Player of the Week on Monday. "Things just didn't go the way we planned tonight. We couldn't make a shot. We had wide open shots. We're going to go back and look at the film. I'm pretty sure coach will just let it run so we can see all the shots that we should have knocked down but didn't."
During one particular stretch of futility, NC State went more than 10 minutes without a field goal, a drought that covered the last 5:19 of the first half and carried over for another 5:18 into the second half.
By the time Clemson's Chris Hobbs nailed a 15-foot jumper with 12:26 left, the Tigers were ahead 38-25, a bulge that excited a home crowd of 7,700 that had been relatively lethargic up to that point.
After crawling back to within six at 50-44 with 2:17 left, NC State had a possession that pretty much defined the entire night. Melvin missed a shot from the arc, but Hodge got the rebound. Then came another misfire from Scooter Sherrill followed by another offensive rebound. To complete the hat trick, Engin Atsur clanked a 3-point attempt from the left corner.
From there, the Tigers would go on sink 8-of-12 free throws to sew up their biggest win since they downed North Carolina in the same building a few weeks ago.
Clemson shot 44.7 percent for the game (21-of-47), a figure that included Akingbala's 5-for-7 performance from the floor.
"I thought it was obviously an outstanding defensive effort by our team," said Clemson coach Oliver Purnell. "The thing that's a little bit deceptive about NC State is that they're a higher scoring team than you think. I felt like we kept them out of transition with some easy baskets. Our field goal percentage defense and 3-point percentage defense were outstanding. We held a team to 19 points in the first half and I thought that set the tone. Then it was a matter of us getting some things offensively."
For NC State, the school's longest ACC winning streak since the mid-1970s is now history, and so is the good feeling the Pack had after knocking off then top-ranked Duke on Sunday night.
"This had nothing to do with our game against Duke," Sendek responded when asked if his team had suffered through a letdown. "If we had not won against Duke this was going to be a tough game. If you don't play well on the road in the ACC, you don't win."
And you don't win when the ball won't go in.
