North Carolina State University Athletics
TIM PEELER: Wolfpack falls 74-58 to Boston College
1/6/2007 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
RALEIGH – There was a point in the second half of NC State’s 74-58 loss to Boston College Saturday afternoon that Wolfpack head coach Sidney Lowe particularly admired the way his team played.
The Wolfpack (10-5 overall, 0-2 ACC) befuddled the Eagles with a 1-3-1 zone defense that Lowe’s staff had installed the day before, and with freshman Dennis Horner playing out front, State was creating multiple fast-break opportunities, with senior Engin Atsur back on the floor to lead the charge and junior Gavin Grant finishing with soaring lay-ups from his natural wing position.
With that kind of effort, the Wolfpack surged on a 13-2 run, cutting a Boston College lead that had once been 23 points down to 53-42 with 9:52 remaining. It was the kind of play Lowe expected earlier this season, had Atsur not missed the Wolfpack’s last nine games with a hamstring injury.
The only trouble with the whole scenario is that the Wolfpack dug itself such an early hole with its lax defense and poor rebounding in the first half that the significant run didn’t put much of a dent into Boston College’s lead. The Wolfpack, which was blitzed with five consecutive 3-pointers by the Eagles mid-way through the first half, never got within 10 points, though that might have been different had Horner not been called for charging after he stole the ball away from Boston College’s Tyrese Rice and went on a fast-break.
“If we score that basket, who knows what might have happened?” Lowe said.
But the first-year coach let his team know that he was not satisfied with the way it started the game against the Eagles (10-4, 2-0), getting pounded on the boards and pushed around under the basket. The Wolfpack was not aggressive on defense, and Boston College went from holding a tight 10-7 lead, to a 10-minute explosion that left the Wolfpack down 37-19 at the half.
“I was real disappointed in the way that we played as a team in the first half,” said Grant, who scored 16 of his 22 points after intermission. “I felt we didn’t compete. It seemed like they hit us so hard, they knocked us on our heels, and we never regained the composure in the first half and by the time we did in the second half, it was too late.”
Sophomore Ben McCauley, who had scored at least 19 points in each of the Wolfpack’s last five, was double-teamed extensively in the first half, and he struggled to get off his shots, making just one of his five attempts in the first half.
“That was completely new to me, getting double teamed in college,” McCauley said. “I am going to have to work on making my moves a lot quicker or passing the ball out quicker and reposting. I think that is something I am really going to need to work on, getting my guys good shots. We knew they were going to be big bruisers. Unfortunately, we didn’t rise up to the challenge. We weren’t 100 percent on our game. That caught up to us. We got down early and that hurt us.”
In the first half, Boston College out-rebounded the Wolfpack 29-14, as State created ample opportunities for getting boards by hitting only 26.9 percent of its shots. The Eagles weren’t much better, hitting only 40.5 percent of their shots in the first half, but the five 3-pointers and multiple possessions with multiple shots helped them build an insurmountable lead.
The Eagles had almost as many offensive rebounds (13) as the Pack had total (14) in the first half. Those numbers changed little in the second half, with BC owning a 50-30 overall advantage, with 23 offensive rebounds to NC State’s eight.
The Pack had a particularly difficult night from the 3-point line, making just one of 13 attempts in the game’s first 59 minutes. Redshirt freshman Brandon Costner, who finished with 18 for the Wolfpack, hit two and missed another in the final minute of play.
The most encouraging thing for Lowe was the return of Atsur, for two reasons. First, it gives his team a more natural point guard, as Atsur showed by dishing out 10 assists with only one turnover. However, he is still rusty with his shooting touch, as he missed all four of his shots on the afternoon.
But it also allows Grant to move back to his natural wing forward position, instead of the responsibility of running the point. He excelled, especially in the second half when he got loose on several fast-break opportunities.
“Having (Atsur) out there gave us a calmness that we need,” Lowe said. “It also frees up Gavin on the wing and lets him play his natural position, as a result of Engin being back on the point. When we can get stops on defense, it allows us to look to get Gavin in the open floor, something we did well today.”
Lowe is concerned that his team, which has trailed at the half in four of its last six games, is having a difficult time getting started, especially as he prepares for the conference portion of the season.
“It’s new to me, unusual to me, to have a young team that kind of does things in the reverse,” Lowe said. “We seem to get going in the second half and we pick it up. Usually, with a young team, you are excited and energetic and you normally lose them down the stretch. This team here, it doesn’t give up. They keep going and they dig and they dig and the find a way we almost did it again today. We put ourselves in position.”
The Wolfpack returns to action Tuesday against Clemson in a 7 p.m. contest at the RBC Center.
You may contact Tim Peeler at tim_peeler@ncsu.edu.
