North Carolina State University Athletics
TIM PEELER: NC State Suffers First Home Loss of Season
1/25/2006 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Jan. 25, 2006
BY TIM PEELER
RALEIGH -- Neither Herb Sendek nor his players had any explanations or excuses for what happened to them Wednesday night at the RBC Center, an 83-65 non-conference loss to Seton Hall.
It was just one of those nights when nothing went right, in effort or execution.
"We weren't very good tonight," Sendek said. "What can I say? We did not play well. Seton Hall deserves all the credit in the world. The first half, in particular, they were outstanding and we were not. We take full responsibility for that.
"It will be up to us to try to get better."
With four days before the Wolfpack plays again - at Clemson on Sunday at 1:30 p.m. - Sendek and his team certainly have enough time to reflect on what went wrong, and how to prevent it from happening again.
"Oh, we'll learn something from [this game]," Sendek said. "There is nothing we did tonight that I will say `We did that really well.' "You can go right down the checklist on whatever topic you want to pick. Our half-court defense was poor, our half-court offense was poor, our first-half effort was poor, our rebounding was poor. If you would like to use another adjective, that is fine too."
For fifth-year senior Ilian Evtimov, there was little else to say about the game, other than "it was an ugly, embarrassing way to lose."
The Pirates (10-6) jumped out early, holding the Wolfpack (15-4) to one basket during a nine-minute stretch of the first half. Seton Hall built its lead up to as many as 18 in the first half and 24 in the second. The Wolfpack tried to come back, the way it did against Wake Forest on Saturday, by pressing and trapping, but Seton Hall's advantage was too large.
The Pirates helped themselves by making 26 of 29 free throws and shooting 47.3 percent from the field, nearly 10 percentage points better than the Wolfpack's shooting. Seton Hall also dominated the boards, 41-27, and got 13 offensive rebounds.
"We haven't played like this all season," said senior guard Tony Bethel. "It was just one of those nights. There is no explanation for it. We have to be tougher. Don't get me wrong, they are a good team.
"But we feel we should have beaten them. It hurts right now. They got up big on us and it was tough to come back."
No one was willing to paint any kind of rosy picture from the Wolfpack's first home loss of the season, other than to easily identify how to change things.
"The best thing about it is that this loss was not about Xs and Os, it was about being tough and gritty," Bethel said. "We can correct that. We have been playing like that most of the season, but we let it slip away from us tonight. It is a good lesson to learn. "We have a lot of veteran guys and we will just have to move on. This one is going to stick with us until we play again, though."
You may contact Tim Peeler at tim_peeler@ncsu.edu.
