North Carolina State University Athletics
West Virginia Shoots Down Pack, 71-60
12/7/2006 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
By Tony Haynes
Charleston,
West Virginia never shoots the ball well when it makes the 150-mile journey from
Morgantown to the
Charleston
Civic
Center. That can now officially be categorized as a myth.
Drilling 13-of-28 shots from behind the 3-point line, including 8-of-14 in the second half, the Mountaineers (6-1) toppled NC State on Wednesday night, 71-60. Frank Young led four double-figure scorers with 16 points, while Joe Alexander and Alex Ruoff added 15 apiece.
Ruoff, a 30 percent 3-point shooter coming into the game, hit five of six from long-range.
The loss was NC State’s second in as many games and dropped the Wolfpack to 5-2 on the season.
“It was frustrating because we talked about fighting over screens and not giving them open looks,” said Wolfpack head coach Sidney Lowe. “We gave them too many looks. We went zone a couple of times. Twice it worked for us, but then they started making adjustments; they brought in another shooter and they put him up high, so they had four shooters around the perimeter, which forced our big guys to come out and defend outside. That’s tough when you have shooters like that around the perimeter.”
Still, NC State was in it at the seven-minute mark, trailing by only two points. That was, perhaps, the moment when the Pack’s lack of depth came into play. Following a Brandon Costner layup that cut
West Virginia’s lead to 53-51 with 7:10 left, the Wolfpack would come up empty on five straight possessions, a stretch that included three turnovers.
West Virginia took advantage, going on a 12-2 run that started with a 3-point shot from guard Frank Young. Da’Sean
Butler followed with a jumper, Ruoff hit a three, and Alexander nailed a 15-footer after an offensive rebound to put the Mountaineers up by 10. And when Alexander ended the flurry with a steal and dunk,
West Virginia was in total control 65-53 with 1:50 remaining.
The Wolfpack would get no closer than nine points the rest of the way.
With Brandon Costner, Ben McCauley, Gavin Grant and Courtney Fells all playing the entire 40 minutes, NC State simply wilted down the stretch against a deeper
West Virginia team that substituted freely and used 10 players.
“We don’t want to make excuses but these guys are logging a lot of minutes,” Lowe said. “I think not just physically, but mentally it affected us. We’ve got to start thinking through the game and not make the mistakes that we just talked about in the locker room. We came out and made some bad decisions with turnovers and bad shots. You just can’t win like that.”
Pressed into fulltime duty at the point guard spot with Engin Atsur still recovering from a hamstring pull, Grant had a difficult time getting untracked and solving
West Virginia’s active
“Gavin Grant is playing out of position and it’s not fair to expect him to think like a point guard all the time,” Lowe said. “I’m trying to push him and help with that. He’s accustomed to attacking and unfortunately, he’s getting some turnovers that he shouldn’t have because he’s handling the ball so much. It’s early and we’re looking forward to getting Engin back so we can move Gavin to his natural position.”
After falling behind 21-12 with just over five minutes left in the first half, NC State battled back, outscoring the Mountaineers 16-7 to close out the first half and forge a 28-28 tie at the break. Scoring regularly in the post and on medium range jumpers, Wolfpack forward Brandon Costner had 11 of his 15 points in the opening 20 minutes.
“I felt good going into the locker room,” Lowe said. “I felt that we understood how we had to approach this game because all of a sudden we started moving the ball around and finding the open man.”
And although NC State made eight of its first 12 shots to open the second half, keeping up with the
West Virginia pace was challenging since the Mountaineers knocked down their first six 3-point attempts after halftime.
West Virginia shot 39 percent (24-of-61) overall, while the Wolfpack was 22-of-48 for 39 percent. Fells led the Pack with 17 points, while center Ben McCauley added 15 points and seven rebounds. NC State outrebounded
West Virginia overall, 35-31, but the Mountaineers had an edge on the offensive glass, where it capitalized on 14 boards to score 12 second chance points.
“We’re still curious about what kind of team we have right now, but we have so much respect for
North Carolina
State and the ACC, that for us to come down here and play well, I feel very rewarded,” said
West Virginia coach John Beilein. “We’re fortunate to get a win.”
