North Carolina State University Athletics
TIM PEELER: Wolfpack Suffers First ACC Loss at UNC
1/7/2006 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Jan. 7, 2006
BY TIM PEELER
CHAPEL HILL -- How did NC State go from the euphoria of an 11-0 lead at the start of Saturday's game against North Carolina to the devastation of giving up the final 13 points in an 82-69 loss to the Tar Heels?
That question has many answers, from the lack of offensive execution by the Wolfpack to the second-half absence of sophomore center Cedric Simmons, who played only seven minutes after halftime because of foul trouble.
There was a four-minute stretch in the first half when the Wolfpack didn't score a field goal and a three-minute stretch at the end of the game when it didn't score any points.
But there were also stretches when the Wolfpack managed to come back against a hostile crowd. With seven minutes to play, Herb Sendek's team was down by seven points, and managed to even the score once Simmons came back in the lineup.
However, without Simmons there earlier in the half, both sophomore Andrew Brackman and Ilian Evtimov expended a lot of energy to slow down North Carolina freshman Tyler Hansbrough, who made the Wolfpack pay for its lacking defense by making 14 straight free throws in the game, to account for most of his game-high 20 points. It was the best free-throw shooting performance by a UNC player since Phil Ford went 16-for-16 against NC State in 1976.
"I think as a team it kind of limited our rotation of big guys when I got in foul trouble," Simmons said. "Andrew and Ilian worked hard out there, but I couldn't come in to give them a blow. North Carolina kept rotating their guys in there and we had to always guard a fresh body. That really hurt us down the stretch."
The Wolfpack defense also let Tar Heel freshman Bobby Frasor slip past on several occasions, especially down the stretch when the No. 25 Tar Heels took charge of a 69-69 tie and scored the final 13 points of the game against the No. 13 Wolfpack.
The Wolfpack made a handful of uncharacteristic mistakes in its first ACC road game, especially late, from missing two front-end of one-and-one situations at the foul line, to turnover on a sidelines inbounds play and a lack of patience on offense.
And even when Herb Senek's team did do the right things, things didn't work out very well. With the game tied at 69, the Wolfpack defense stopped everything North Carolina was trying to on offense until David Noel found himself trapped near the corner, fumbling the ball out of his hands.
But he managed to bounce the ball to Hansbrough, who dunked the ball with two seconds remaining on the shot clock and 2:33 remaining in the game. The Wolfpack didn't score another point.
"That was one of those things," Sendek said. "That was a possession when we played very good defense. Sometimes the ball doesn't bounce your way. That is part of the game."
The important consideration for the Wolfpack is now what it takes from this game, with Tuesday's game at Boston College looming, a home game against Georgia Tech next Saturday and another road game at top-ranked Duke on Jan. 18.
There are things to work on, like playing with a shorter bench when Simmons is in foul trouble.
"We were really hurting them going down low and when Cedric went out we kind of had to adjust a little bit," said Wolfpack senior Cameron Bennerman, who had 10 points. "We kind of shied away from that and started being a little more perimeter oriented."
That hurt in the first half, when the Wolfpack missed seven straight 3-pointers. In the second half, the Wolfpack missed two more open 3s that were good looks, but came up short.
The real concern for Sendek is execution, particularly at the end of the game, when turnovers came in crucial situations and none of those bounces went the Wolfpack's way.
"We have to learn from it," Evtimov said. "We have a great coach and even when we win, we take good lessons from the wins, because you never play the perfect game. Obviously today, we lost, but we are going to take good lessons from the game. We are going to watch film and we are going to get better and we are going to get prepared for Boston College.
"The things we learned today was that the older guys have to step up in crunch time. We have to make plays. We can't allow ourselves to let team get on runs. We have been around the ACC and around the country, played in tough arenas and if we want to win the basketball game, we have to execute and make plays at the end of the game."
Obviously, it was a hard loss to handle, losing to the team's biggest rival on the road. But sometimes those are the lessons that stick the best.
"We have to go back to work and forget this game - but remember it at the same time," Bethel said.
You may contact Tim Peeler at tim_peeler@ncsu.edu.
