North Carolina State University Athletics
Hickson Leads Wolfpack Over Western Carolina, 74-62
12/29/2007 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
BY TIM PEELER
The result was an improved second-half performance and a rugged 74-62 victory over former NC State assistant coach Larry Hunter and
The Catamounts opened the game with an 8-0 lead and stretched their advantage to 10 points on several occasions, thanks to a 7-for-10 shooting performance from the 3-point line. At halftime, Catamounts led 41-32 after Camden Miller hit another long-range bomb with less than 10 seconds remaining.
But in the second half, behind the scoring of freshman J.J. Hickson, the Wolfpack (9-3) rocked the
“I thought our guys kept their composure after falling behind and came out in the second half and played defense the way we are capable of playing,” Lowe said. “We only gave them 21 points and held them to 24 percent shooting (8-for-33).
“Our only message was to defend, and if you don’t defend, you are going to come out of the game. It was real simple. I wasn’t even worried about offense.”
Sophomore Brandon Costner gave the Wolfpack its first lead of the day by draining an open 3-pointer after a cross-court pass from junior Courtney Fells with 11:38 remaining in the game. Hickson, who had a game-high 33 points and 13 rebounds, was a key contributor in the decisive run, scoring on a three-point play to open the half after
“I give credit to J.J. because he plays hard in there,” Lowe said. “But I also give credit to his teammates because they looked for him and found him. They knew he had an advantage down there. They were patient enough. We had some opportunities for outside shots, but we turned them down to get it to the big fella inside.”
Hickson also made the most of his opportunities. A day after being forced to stay after practice to work on his poor free-throw shooting, Hickson made 13 of his 16 shots from the line.
“There was nothing specifically said about getting the ball to me and no plays called to get it to me,” Hickson said. “I just took it upon myself to go in and try to carry my team. I just kept on posting up hard, getting my defender on my back and getting the ball from my teammates.”
As well as the Catamounts (4-8) shot the ball from the perimeter in the first half, they had a hard time getting anything to fall in the second because of the Wolfpack’s intense defense. However, they did tie the score again after the Wolfpack surged ahead by as many as six points and were within one point, 63-62, with 3:42 to play.
But the Wolfpack scored the game’s final 11 points, seven of which came at the free-throw line.
Hickson’s total was just two off the school freshman scoring record set by Ernie Myers against Duke in 1983. The performance topped the 31 points Hickson had against William & Mary in his first collegiate game.
Junior Ben McCauley added 12 points and Costner had 10.
The Wolfpack players were happy about the team’s defensive intensity to open the second half, but they know it will have to come earlier next time around.
“One thing we need to work on is playing like we did in the second half in the first half,” said McCauley, who now has back-to-back double-digit games off the bench. “We need to come out with all the energy in the world, getting teams down and keeping them down. That’s what we did in the second half.
“If we do that in the first half, we are going to be all right.”
In the first half, the Wolfpack committed 11 turnovers, which tempered the team’s 10-for-20 shooting performance. The Catamounts not only attempted 14 more shots in the half, they made four more shots from beyond the arc.
The Wolfpack has a week off before hosting Presbyterian next Saturday at 2:30 p.m.
You may contact Tim Peeler at tim_peeler@ncsu.edu.
