North Carolina State University Athletics
TIM PEELER: Finally, A Breather
2/15/2006 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Feb. 15, 2006
BY TIM PEELER
RALEIGH - After five straight games that either went into double overtime or the last possession, NC State got a comfortable win over Florida State Wednesday night at the RBC Center.
If there is such a thing during the final stretch of an ACC season.
But the hot-shooting Wolfpack, which made 13 of its 23 3-pointers and shot 63.6 percent from the floor for the game, shot well from the beginning of the game, even as the Seminoles kept the game tight until the four-minute mark of the first half.
With the Wolfpack leading 29-27, the Seminoles made a couple of turnovers and missed a couple of shots, and NC State's offense made them pay dearly.
Engin Atsur and Andrew Brackman both hit 3-pointers, and freshman Courtney Fells came off the bench for a quick five-point scoring burst, which included a three-point play.
Atsur finished off the 16 unanswered points to end the first half by making a pair of free throws and another 3-point shot, the Wolfpack's ninth of the first half, to give his team a 45-27 lead at intermission.
Senior Cameron Bennerman opened the second half by hitting a 3-pointer, giving the Wolfpack 19 consecutive points en route to the 86-64 victory.
"It's been a while that we won with a big lead like this," said Atsur, who finished with a team-high 19 points. "None of the games were easy, but this was a good win for us."
It was a remarkable shooting performance, the best against an ACC opponent in Sendek's 10 years as the Wolfpack's head coach and the best since the Wolfpack shot 64.3 percent from the field against Georgia Tech on Feb. 22, 1996.
"It was complete win," said Bennerman, who 12 points in the game. "It was good to have this type of game and be able to take a deep breath."
Sendek also appreciated a game that did not go down to the final possession, though he was not happy with his team's 22 turnovers and its ineffective play at times against the Seminole's full-court press. Still, the coach was pleased with his team's overall performance.
"All season long our offensive production has been very good and tonight, if you take the turnovers off the sheet, you would be hard-pressed to come up with a better combination of numbers," Sendek said. "Defensively, I think we did a pretty good as well against a very explosive team that I think is second in our league in scoring."
The bounce-back win, coming on the heels of Sunday's last-second loss at Georgia Tech, not only gave the No. 18 Wolfpack (20-5 overall, 9-3 ACC) its 20th victory of the season, it also assures Sendek's team of a winning record in the ACC for the fourth time in the last five years.
This is the quickest that NC State has gotten to 20 victories since the 1973-74 NCAA Championship team won 20 of its first 21 games.
The win did not come without a cost, however. Senior Ilian Evtimov suffered a sprained foot in the first half and did not return. X-rays taken at halftime at the RBC Center were negative, but he was taken to Rex Hospital afterwards for an MRI.
His status for Saturday's game at Virginia Tech won't be known until later in the week.
You may contact Tim Peeler at tim_peeler@ncsu.edu.
