North Carolina State University Athletics
TIM PEELER: Pack wins 7th straight home game, 80-65
12/16/2006 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
RALEIGH, NC – NC State coach Sidney Lowe used only six players in Saturday afternoon’s 80-65 victory over Mount St. Mary’s, but he got his money’s worth out of them all.
Led by 16 points from sophomores Courtney Fells and Ben McCauley, all six players scored in double-figures in the contest, which was played in front of 12,286 at the RBC Center.
Lowe didn’t mind that no one player stepped forward to put up huge numbers against the pesky Mountaineers. He liked the balance.
“Balanced scoring is great,” Lowe said. “The game can dictate who you can go to, who is open. It’s good if you have a go-to guy, but I think we are fortunate that we have a couple of guys we can run a play for and feel they can knock down a shot.”
Lowe will be looking for that kind of balance again on Wednesday, when the Wolfpack has its most difficult game of the early season, hosting No. 9 Alabama in a 6:30 p.m. contest. But the coach may also have more weapons in that game, with the possibility of redshirt freshman Trevor Ferguson joining the roster and senior point guard Engin Atsur returning from the hamstring injury he suffered four games ago against Michigan.
Saturday, McCauley added nine rebounds to go with his 16 points, while Fells had a game-high four blocks, two assists and three rebounds to go with his. Junior Gavin Grant scored 15 points and had seven rebounds and assists in his 40 minutes of action. Meanwhile, senior Bryan Nieman, redshirt freshman Brandon Costner and freshman Dennis Horner each scored 11 points as the Wolfpack (7-2) remained undefeated at home this season.
“The offense that we run is so open for anybody at any given time to score,” said Fells how has had at least a share of top-scoring honors in two of the Wolfpack’s last three games. “I go out and execute and play hard, look for the open man and play unselfish at all times. We know that anybody can score at any given time. That is what we try to do.”
But, after taking a week off for final exams, the Wolfpack played sluggishly at times, especially in rebounding. Mount St. Mary’s out-rebounded the Pack 24-14 in the first half and stayed in the game with a 10-4 advantage in second-chance points. State offset the rebounding deficit by being active on defense, forcing 14 total turnovers and recording a 21-5 advantage in points off turnovers.
The Wolfpack jumped out to a 20-6 lead in the first eight minutes of the game, but the Mountaineers cut that lead down to as few as three in the first few minutes of the second half.
“Last game (against Savannah State), we came out a little sluggish and was down 9-0 to start the game,” Grant said. “This game, we came our really fast, then relaxed a little bit. They came back. We couldn’t get any runs going like we wanted to, because they were scoring on the offensive rebounds.”
State, which has been deadly at the free-throw line of late, was only 21 of 28 from the line on the day. However, getting to the double-bonus with 12:30 remaining in the contest, the Wolfpack attempted four times as many free throws as the Mountaineers, who were just 4 of 7 from the line.
It was a comfortable win for the Wolfpack, who have won six straight in the RBC Center and one in Reynolds Coliseum.
“I think we are very good,” Grant said. “I don’t think we are last in the ACC (as some predicted in the preseason) by any means. I think we can compete with any team in the league. Every night we step on the floor we expect to win.
“Like I said earlier in the year, I think these guys are going to mature very fast, I think they are maturing, Brandon and Ben especially. We are not a deep team right now, but we are getting a couple of players back in Engin and Trevor and I think we will get a nice little rotation going.”
NOTES: Lowe added two more new players to his roster, both borrowed from new head coach Tom O’Brien’s football squad. Freshmen Darrell Davis and Jarvis Williams, who both redshirted in football this season, were in uniform on the bench Saturday, though neither saw action in the game. Davis is a 6-foot-5 swing player from Dade City, Fla., while Williams is a 6-foot-4 guard from Orlando. “They give us some bodies, some athletes,” Lowe said. “Once they learn the system and learning what we are going. They might be able to come in and give us some minutes.” ... The Wolfpack now have as many walk-ons (6) as it does active players available, at least until Ferguson and Atsur return. ... Speaking of football, Mount St. Mary’s coach Milan Brown, in his fourth year as the Mountaineers’ head coach, is the older brother of former NC State football player Morocco Brown, who played under former head coach Mike O’Cain in the late 1990s.
You may contact Tim Peeler at tim_peeler@ncsu.edu.
