North Carolina State University Athletics
Wolfpack tops 2nd-seeded Cavs, 79-71, in ACC Tournament
3/10/2007 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Updated: 12:15 a.m. 3/10/2007
BY TIM PEELER
TAMPA,
The No. 10 seed Wolfpack, trailing by 14 points at halftime, stormed back with a 21-4 run in the early in the second half and held on to eliminate second-seeded Virginia Friday night in the ACC Tournament quarterfinals. It was the second biggest comeback from a halftime deficit in the 54-year history of the league tournament, behind only Maryland's comeback from 19 points at intermission against NC State in the 2004 tournament in Greensboro.
Redshirt freshman Brandon Costner, who scored 30 in the Wolfpack’s 85-80 over time win over Duke on Thursday, was again the offensive hero, scoring 22 points in the game on 6 of 13 shooting from the field and seven of nine shooting at the free-throw line. Junior Gavin Grant had 20 points, scoring nine points in the game's final two minutes. Senior Engin Atsur added 10 and sophomore Ben McCauley added 12.
But the biggest play of the game was made by senior Bryan Nieman, a former walk-on who had played at two previous schools before coming back home to Raleigh prior to last season, when he took a charge on Virginia’s Mamadi Diane with 1:55 remaining. The foul negated a basket that would have tied the game.
"I happened to be in the right spot in the right time," Nieman said. "I actually wasn’t supposed to be guarding him. I actually lost J.R. Reynolds for a second and happened to be there."
The Wolfpack (17-14 overall) followed that up with a layup and 3-pointer from Grant on consecutive possessions. McCauley grabbed two huge rebounds in between, securing the Wolfpack’s fifth trip to the tournament semifinals in the last six years.
State will face Virginia Tech, a team it has beaten twice this season, in the semifinals. The Hokies beat Wake Forest, 71-52, in the final game of the quarterfinals. The semifinal is slated to begin at approximately 4 p.m.
Nieman -- who grew up in nearby Wake Forest but played at both Winthrop and Gulfcoast Community College before returning home to Raleigh as a walk-on last year -- also drained a pair of 3-pointers down the stretch that helped secure the victory, his only two shots of the contest.
The Wolfpack, now guaranteed a winning season in head coach Sidney Lowe's first year at his alma mater, got help from Virginia senior J.R. Reynolds, who scored 25 of his game-high 29 points in the second half of a 71-58 victory over the Pack in Raleigh. Nursing a hip injury, the senior shooting guard missed 11 of his first 12 shots from the field. He finished the game with 11 points on 3-for-15 shooting. It should have been no surprise: Reynolds had made just six of his 29 shots in the Cavaliers previous two games
“We told whoever was guarding him just to limit his touches and try to make it tough for him to get off shots and get those good looks,” Lowe said. “They made him work for it when they had the basketball.”
Meanwhile, junior Sean Singletary, who had 27 points against the Wolfpack in Raleigh, made just six of 16 shots form the field and one 3-pointer to amass his 22 points. The Cavaliers, after hitting a respectable 45.9 percent of their shots in the first half, managed to make only 32 percent of its shots in the second half.
“I thought our defense was much better in the second half,” Lowe said. “We had several guys who just picked it up and played well for us. One guy in particular, who probably made some of the biggest plays of the night, is Bryan Nieman, with the charge he took, getting his hand on a loose ball, stealing a pass that gave us the momentum.
The Wolfpack, on the other hand, made 73.9 percent of its shots after halftime, following an impassioned -- and rather vocal -- speech from its first-year coach.
That came after Lowe's team couldn't get going at all in the first half, perhaps a little mentally hung-over from eliminating Duke in overtime the night before. Virginia raced out to an 8-0 lead before State scored a basket and led 40-26 at intermission. It was the Cavs’ biggest lead of the game.
The Pack fought its way back from the early deficit and briefly took a 3-point lead, after Costner hit a 3-pointer to tie the game at 16-16 and senior Engin Atsur hit another 3-pointer to give his team a 19-16 advantage.
But the Cavaliers reeled off 11 straight points to retake their original eight-point lead, then got consecutive possessions of two, three and four points to stretch its lead to 36-22. Senior guard J.R. Reynolds hit the first shot, followed by a 3-point basket by freshman Jamil Tucker and a 3-pointer and foul shot by junior Sean Singletary, who was fouled by Nieman on the shot.
The teams traded four-point scoring bursts to end the half.
The Wolfpack outscored Virginia 13-3 to open the second half to draw within four points with 16:46 remaining in the game, but the Cavs reeled off another seven consecutive points to stretch its lead to 11.
That’s when Lowe’s team went on its decisive run to take control of the game. It scored nine straight points, getting its scoring from four different players. Sophomore Courtney Fells got a dunk, Atsur hit a pair of free throws, Costner got an offensive rebound of his own miss and Nieman hit a 3-pointer in the deep corner to cut Virginia’s lead to 52-49.
The Pack led by as many as six points with seven minutes to play, thanks to a 3-pointer in the corner from Nieman, who made contributions on the court and on the offensive end.
The Wolfpack, which shot 60.1 percent from the field against the Blue Devils, made only eight of 24 field-goal attempts (33.3 percent) in the first half against the Cavaliers. Eight first-half turnovers didn’t help the Wolfpack’s cause.
Singletary burned the Wolfpack for 16 points before intermission, and the Cavs outscored the Pack 13-5 off turnovers.
You may contact Tim Peeler at tim_peeler@ncsu.edu.
