North Carolina State University Athletics
NC State
Virginia Tech
Wolfpack Edged By Hokies, 72-71
1/19/2005 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Jan. 19, 2005
By Tony Haynes
Blacksburg, Va. - Perhaps NC State would have been better off had Miami and Virginia Tech stayed in the Big East. A one-point loser to the Hurricanes back on January 9th, the Wolfpack came away with similar disappointment after facing another of the ACC's new members on Wednesday night. This time, it was the Hokies turn to be inhospitable to the Pack. Coleman Collins' tough fade away jumper in the lane with 13 seconds left proved to be the difference, rallying Virginia Tech (9-6, 2-2) to a 72-71 triumph in front of 9,847 fans at Cassell Coliseum.
Following Collins clutch shot, Tech's Jamon Gordon blocked Julius Hodge's short jumper in the lane with less than three seconds left to preserve the Hokies' second straight conference win.
Collins, who was averaging 10.2 points and just 4.7 rebounds per game, suddenly started looking like an All-American on Wednesday, burning the Pack's low post defenders for 20 points and nine rebounds. The 6-9 sophomore also made all 10 of his free throw attempts after knocking down a modest 68 prior to the game. The Hokies also got 20 points from guard Zabian Dowdell and 18 from Carlos Dixon, who was a perfect 8-of-8 from the free throw line himself.
But it was the inside presence of Collins down the stretch that pushed Virginia Tech over the top.
"They just went inside to him," said Wolfpack head coach Herb Sendek. "He was 10-for-10 at the foul line and he converted like crazy inside."
NC State (11-6, 1-3) seemed to be in control after Julius Hodge threw down a breakaway dunk following a steal to put the Wolfpack in front 67-56 with 7:30 left. But the remainder of the second half would belong to the Hokies, who would outscore the Pack 16-4 the rest of the way.
And when the Pack reflects back on the final seven minutes, it will be scratching its head about how so many shots close to the basket didn't go in. Hodge had NC State's only two field goals over the final seven minutes; a dunk following another steal with 4:59 left that put his team ahead by seven and a runner in the lane with 34 seconds left to briefly give the Pack a 71-70 lead.
But so many opportunities slipped through NC State's fingertips down the stretch, it's almost impossible to count them all. Quite often, the Wolfpack would execute its offense to near perfection, only to miss layups. Freshman Gavin Grant, who finished with 14 points, had three different shots in close that wouldn't go. Then, during one frantic stretch, Hodge missed a short jumper, rebounded, missed the follow, rebounded again, and missed another layup. All that happened with just two minutes remaining and the Pack up by a point.
"We were getting great looks," said Hodge, who led the Pack with 23 points and 12 rebounds. "We were working the ball offensively. We just stopped scoring during that one stretch and they scored on almost every play. The last seven minutes it was crunch time and we didn't get critical stops."
The excellent free throw shooting that seemed to return to NC State's arsenal during Sunday's win over Georgia Tech disappeared into the cold Blacksburg night on Wednesday. The Wolfpack finished 15-of-26, and many of the misses came during times when the Pack seemed on the verge of putting the game out of reach. With 3:48 left, Ilian Evtimov stepped to the line and missed a pair that would have given NC State a seven-point bulge.
"We have a chance with Ilian at the line to go up seven, and instead it stays at five and they come down and scored and it becomes a three-point game," Sendek said. "Just little momentum shifts like that were big. Gavin has a layup, misses it and they come down and score. Little momentum shifts like that where we don't score and they're right back at us really turned the table."
Meanwhile, Virginia Tech, a 65 percent free throw shooting team coming in, was 19-of-24 for the game, and actually knocked down 19 of its first 22 before Deron Washington bricked two with just 1.6 seconds left. Because Washington's second free throw missed the rim, the Wolfpack had one last desperate chance at the end, but Andrew Brackman's end-to-end heave was knocked down in front of the basket.
Like Hodge, Brackman finished with a double double, scoring 13 points to go along with 10 rebounds.
A Grant 3-pointer just before the horn ending the first half gave NC State a 41-32 edge at the break, a half in which the Wolfpack shot 59 percent from the floor. The first 20 minutes also ended with Virginia Tech coach Seth Greenberg getting a technical foul for arguing with officials. The second half started with Evtimov burying a pair of technical free throws to make it 43-32.
Over the next eight minutes, however, the Hokies would shred the Wolfpack's man-to-man defense, knocking down 8 of its first 12 shots in the half to pull even at 56 apiece. But after Tech tied it, Sendek made a defensive moved that, at the time, seemed to turn the tide in the Wolfpack's favor. Going to a 2-3 zone defense that took the Hokies out of sync, NC State scored 11 straight points, seemingly in total control.
That's when the momentum shifted again, with Virginia Tech going inside to Collins, while the Wolfpack was struggling just to get layups to go down.
Virginia Tech shot 42.6 percent for the game (23-of-54) after hitting 52.2 percent in the second half. The Hokies were also seven of 13 from the 3-point arc. NC State cooled off after intermission and finished up with 47.2 percent shooting.
The Wolfpack, which had 17 turnovers, won the rebounding battle by a 37-28 margin.
