North Carolina State University Athletics
NC State
West Virginia
Minus Hodge, Wolfpack falls to West Virginia, 82-69
1/2/2005 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Jan. 2, 2005
By Tony Haynes
Raleigh, N.C. - Julius Hodge was sitting on the bench in street clothes, nursing a sprained ankle. Numerous other players on the NC State roster were rundown by flu-like symptoms. But even had the Wolfpack been at full-strength against West Virginia, victory wouldn't have been guaranteed, not with the way the Mountaineers were executing and shooting on offense. Placing six players in double figures and hitting 58.8 percent (30-of-51) from the floor, West Virginia improved its record to 10-0 on the season Sunday with an eye-opening 82-69 win over NC State at the RBC Center.
For the Mountaineers, who had just stopped 20th ranked George Washington on Wednesday night, it marked a second straight win over a team ranked in the top 25. For NC State, it was the second straight loss and third in the last five games.
After getting off to a 9-0 start, the Wolfpack is now 10-3.
"I liked our guys' efforts; I think their hearts and minds were in the right place," said NC State head coach Herb Sendek. "There were some guys who played today that weren't feeling well. That's not making an excuse, but we've all had the flu at one time or another; forget about playing basketball, you don't even want to get out of bed. But we do have to get better right now and no one is more aware of that than we are."
After spraining an ankle late in Thursday's loss to St. John's, Hodge, who leads NC State in scoring, rebounds and assists, was unable to go. The Pack also continued to be hampered by illness, as guards Tony Bethel, Cameron Bennerman and Gavin Grant - among others - were less than 100 percent.
`The last two days our practices have been walks-throughs," Sendek said. "We just haven't been able to practice. But the fact of the matter is, in sports you play with who ever is able to play. End of story. That's the way we've always approached it and that's the way we approached it today; not only with Julius, but with some of the other guys that were under the weather."
But injury and illness aside, NC State also ran into a West Virginia team that appears to be at the top of its game right now. Executing a post-less offense that's somewhat similar to what the Wolfpack employs, the Mountaineers found a lot of open shots and buried the majority of them. Heady forward Mike Gansey led the attack with 15 points and 10 rebounds. Johannes Herber, a native of Darmstadt, Germany, was 6-of-10 overall and 3-of-4 from the arc for his 15 points. Tyrone Sally (11 points), Patrick Beilein (11), Fisher D'or (10) and Kevin Pittsnogle (10) also reached double-figures for the balanced Mountaineers.
Trailing 24-18 midway through the first half, West Virginia got hot and went on to build a 34-25 advantage with a 16-1 run that featured a stretch in which NC State went more than seven minutes without a field goal. The Pack did get back-to-back 3-pointers from Levi Watkins and Engin Atsur right before halftime to go into the locker room trailing 43-36.
Over the first few minutes of the second half, NC State got a pair of baskets from Bennerman to close within a bucket on two occasions. From that point on, however, the Wolfpack simply couldn't keep up the scoring pace with a West Virginia team that seemed to score in a variety of ways on almost every possession.
"It's tough to win when they score every time they go down the court," said forward Ilian Evtimov, who had 16 points. "Unless you make four or five-point plays which are almost impossible, you can't win the ballgame. They didn't miss that many shots."
During one blistering stretch in the second half, the Mountaineers scored on 8-of-9 possessions to grab a 69-55 lead with 7:41 remaining. And along the way, they were making the most of their offensive trips down the floor due to the fact that they only had 12 turnovers for the game and just five in the second half.
"One of the primary differences today was they were just shooting at a much higher level than we were," said Sendek. "They're tough to come back against because they don't turn the basketball over. They only average nine per game. They are a very well coached team and we give them a lot of credit. They took it to us today."
Making his first start of the season, freshman forward Andrew Brackman had 19 points and eight rebounds for the Wolfpack. Center Jordan Collins hit 6-of-8 field goal attempts for his 15 points.
"I'm really proud of my team," said West Virginia coach John Beilein. "I think we had a bit of an advantage in that we had a couple of extra days to prepare. We did not just come from the west coast to the Garden to here. We've been home and practicing and certainly weren't missing our top player. When they went cold in the second half from `3', it was tough for them to get the same baskets that [Hodge] might get them."
Preparing for West Virginia's unorthodox offense and 1-3-1 zone defense was difficult enough for NC State. That, combined with Hodge's injury, team illnesses and West Virginia's excellent play, was too much to overcome.
In the end, Sendek could only be thankful that the Wolfpack has a week between games before next week's ACC opener at Miami won't be played until Sunday.
"I don't know what we could do at this point if we had another game fast-coming," Sendek said. "The first thing we have to do is get healthy. The second thing we need to do is get better."
As for Julius Hodge's long-term prognosis, Sendek wasn't willing to make any predictions.
"I don't know," he said. "People handle pain differently. I don't want to speculate. I think that's going to be between our doctors and Julius."
