North Carolina State University Athletics
Wolfpack shocks No. 3 Tar Heels, 83-79
2/4/2007 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
BY TIM PEELER
RALEIGH – Sidney Lowe improved his winning streak overRBC
Center, leading his alma mater to an 83-79 upset over the No. 3 Tar Heels, the highest ranked team a first-year Wolfpack coach has ever beaten.
Lowe, who led State to back-to-back victories over the Heels as a senior guard under coach Jim Valvano en route to the 1983 NCAA Championship, became the first Wolfpack coach to beat UNC in his first attempt since Les Robinson did it in 1991, thanks in great part to the leadership of senior Engin Atsur, who had 12 points and 10 assists in the game, and a career-high 21 points from sophomore Courtney Fells.
"Having Engin out on the floor is vital for us," Lowe said after the game. "If we don’t have him out there, we don’t win that ball game."
All five starters for the Wolfpack scored in double-figures and Lowe’s team out-rebounded the Heels 31-25 in the game.
The Wolfpack (13-8 overall, 3-5 ACC), which missed only four of its 17 shots in the second half, led by as many as 12 points with less than 10 minutes to play in the contest, but the Tar Heels cut that lead down to two on three occasions in the final four minutes. However, Roy Williams’ team couldn’t make a shot or get a rebound to get any closer.
“It was an unbelievable effort from our team on both ends,” Lowe said after his team posted a 76.5 shooting percentage in t he second half, the highest for a Wolfpack team in any half since Feb. 25, 1987. “We knew that if we could execute and get shots we needed, we would have a good [field-goal] percentage. Out-rebounding UNC was huge. We knew we had to concentrate on that, and we came out on top.”
The Wolfpack sealed the win, eventually, on free throws in the final seconds. When the final buzzer went off, ending a six-game losing streak against UNC that dated back to 2003, students and fans swarmed the court, while former Wolfpack stars like David Thompson, Tommy Burleson, Chris Corchiani, Scott Parzych and Ernie Myers congratulated Lowe, his staff and players.Coupled with Wednesday night’s win at Virginia Tech, the Wolfpack (13-8 overall, 3-5 ACC) now has back-to-back victories over teams atop the ACC standings. The Tar Heels (20-3, 6-2) fell behind Boston College into a second-place tie in the ACC regular-season standings.
“You have to admire what they have done in their last two games,” UNC coach Roy Williams said. “I don’t know that I have ever seen a team shoot 76 percent against us before. I have no answers. They had more passion for the game than we did, and I don’t understand that. They dominated us.
“I admire the way they played.”
The Wolfpack matched its biggest lead of the first half following an amazing double-pump reverse dunk by junior Gavin Grant, who was all alone in the backcourt when teammate Brandon Costner stole the ball away from UNC’s Quentin Thomas. Grant’s dunk pushed the Pack lead to 62-53 with 11:08 remaining in the game.Grant finished the game with 16 points, while sophomore Ben McCauley added 17 points and redshirt freshman Brandon Costner had 15 points and 11 rebounds.
Lowe’s team increased that lead to 12 points on a four-point possession following a technical foul on Tar Heel sophomore Tyler Hansbrough, who got in the face of Costner after Costner blocked Hansbrough’s shot in the lane.Hansbrough managed to score inside, but he became frustrated after missing several outside shots that were rebounded by the Wolfpack.
The Wolfpack led by as many as nine in the first half, but gave up that lead as the Tar Heels scored seven straight in the final minutes. However, in one of the game’s biggest plays in terms of momentum, with less than six seconds left before intermission, Grant drove straight down the court, unopposed in the final seconds of the first half to give NC State a 38-36 lead over No. 3 North Carolina Saturday afternoon at the
RBC
Center.
The Wolfpack led for most of the opening 20 minutes, scoring the game’s first four points and maintaining it until the midway part of the half. North Carolina got its only lead of the half when sophomore Tyler Hansbrough scored five straight points on a three-point play and a pair of free throws to give the Tar Heels a 20-17 lead.
But the Wolfpack, on the strength of a pair of 3-pointers by Fells, scored 12 straight points to take its biggest lead of the half, 29-20.
With 2:39 remaining, redshirt freshman Brandon Coster hit a 3-pointer from the top of the key to give the Wolfpack a 36-29 lead, but the Tar Heels went on a seven-point scoring run to tie the game with six seconds remaining before halftime.That’s when Grant drove unopposed down the court to score as the buzzer sounded.
The Wolfpack made 13 of its 26 field goals (50 percent) in the first half, including four of its nine 3-point attempts. The Tar Heels were better from the field, making 14 of 26 (53.8 percent, but managed only one of five from beyond the arc.
Lowe's team now play back-to-back games on the road, traveling to Atlanta on Tuesday to play Georgia Tech and to Miami next Saturday to play the Hurricanes. The Pack has won two consecutive road games in the ACC, over Wake Forest and Virginia Tech.
You may contact Tim Peeler at tim_peeler@ncsu.edu.
