NC State
Maryland
No. 18 NC State Holds Off Maryland, 62-58
2/5/2006 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Feb. 5, 2006
RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) - Nothing appears to come easily for No. 18 North Carolina State, particularly lately, with three consecutive down-to-the-wire games, one of which went two overtimes.
Yet the Wolfpack continue to find a way to win, and their method Sunday was a bit maddening to Maryland. Of their 17 field goals, 12 came on 3-pointers.
"When they make 3s, they're a good team," Terrapins guard D.J. Strawberry said. "They were on, and they won the game."
Tony Bethel made two of those long-range jumpers and added two free throws down the stretch, helping N.C. State hold off Maryland 62-58 to give coach Herb Sendek his 250th career victory.
Bethel finished with five 3s and 17 points, and Cameron Bennerman added 11 points for the Wolfpack (18-4, 7-2 Atlantic Coast Conference), who maintained a one-game lead over Miami for second place in the league. Second-ranked Duke leads at 9-0.
"Just another hard-fought, down-to-the-buzzer ACC game," Sendek said. "What else would we expect from these two teams and this league?"
Andrew Brackman made a layup with 13:21 remaining for N.C. State, and what turned out to be his team's lone two-point field goal of the second half increased its lead to 42-34.
The Terrapins (14-7, 4-4) rallied to get within three on Nik Caner-Medley's late 3-pointer, but Bethel converted two free throws and Bennerman added another to offset a tip-in by Ekene Ibekwe. Maryland missed three attempts in the final seconds, then a final one when Mike Jones was short on an off-balance jumper right before the final buzzer.
"We were right there," Strawberry said. "We've just got to keep pushing. We are going to be a good team, we've just got to do a couple of things to tighten it up."
It gave the Wolfpack their fourth straight conference victory and their fifth in the past 15 games against Maryland. This was the sixth time since 1973 the teams have played on the same day as the Super Bowl.
"I am proud of our guys, because we were in it until the end," Maryland coach Gary Williams said. "N.C. State is a good team, with lots of veterans, and we stayed tough and I am very encouraged about that."
Caner-Medley, who took one shot before halftime and was scoreless in 18 minutes, picked up the pace with 10 points in second half, including five in a 35-second span, to bring the Terrapins within 56-53.
Bethel answered on the other end with a 3 before Caner-Medley made another, setting up the finish. That included Bethel's clutch shots from the line.
"That's one thing we work on in practice," he said. "Coach has us shooting a lot of those in practice, so I was comfortable hitting those last two."
Strawberry had 14 points for Maryland, and Jones and James Gist each scored 13. Caner-Medley added 10 rebounds.
Yet with Bethel and company making jumpers from all over the court, none of that was enough. Six players had 3s for the Wolfpack, with Ilian Evtimov and Bennerman each making two, and they finished 12-for-28 from beyond the arc for the game.
"When we're knocking them down, it gets frustrating for the defense," Bennerman said. "When we're not knocking them down, it kind of takes the wind out of us, and it lets the defense rest when all you take is outside shots."
Bethel's total tied a career high and gave him at least three in five straight games. N.C. State managed to win despite shooting a season-low 30.9 percent, and it was the worst effort in a victory since beating Connecticut in 1991 with 30.6 percent.
"We didn't have crisp ball movement, weren't penetrating well, and we were cutting away from the basket instead of toward the basket," Sendek said. "Those kind of things really kept us from performing well."
Of course, that hardly mattered to the Terrapins, who lost their third straight overall and second in the conference. At least they get to return home for two games - including a matchup with Duke on Saturday - and Caner-Medley stopped short of calling them must-wins.
"We still have half the season to play," Caner-Medley said. "We go into every game like we have to win it, but all that stuff is just talk."
