North Carolina State University Athletics
Wolfpack Tops Marist; Faces WVa. Tuesday 9 p.m., ESPN
3/17/2007 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Updated: 2:56 p.m. 3/17/2007
BY TIM PEELER
RALEIGH, N.C. – Everyone who entered the lobby of Reynolds Coliseum knew this would be a different atmosphere, as least from the five recent Heritage Games played at the former home of the NC State men’s basketball team.
Actually, what they were hoping was that it would be the same kind of frenzy that so many of them had remembered from years ago, with Everett Case, with the Dixie Classic, and all the lore that followed during the 50 years that the Wolfpack men made this historic arena their home.
So fans showed up hours early, just to make sure they had a good seat for Friday night’s general-admission seating in a second-round contest against Marist in the National Invitation Tournament, a game the Wolfpack won 69-62 to advance to a quarterfinal matchup Tuesday at 9 p.m. at West Virginia. The game will be televised by ESPN.
It will be a rematch of a Dec. 6 contest in Charleston, W.Va., which the Mountaineers won 71-60, as the Wolfpack was still learning to play without injured senior guard Engin Atsur.
“We’re a totally different team now,” said Wolfpack coach Sidney Lowe.
With the Wolfpack (20-15) displaced from the RBC Center, its home since 1999, because of a Josh Groban concert, for a game, fans were eager to have an impact in Friday night’s contest.
And they did.
They roared when the Wolfpack took the floor. They cheered lustily for senior Engin Atsur, in appreciation of his gutsy performance at the ACC Tournament in Tampa, Fla., where he led his team to the tournament title game despite a sore hamstring. The roof rattled when first-year head coach Sidney Lowe walked in, wearing his now-required red jacket.
If only the noise meter had still be around.
“I have never heard it as loud as it was tonight in any arena that I have ever played in,” said junior Gavin Grant, who has played in three early-season Heritage Games at Reynolds. “That’s the loudest I ever heard it get.”
To start the game, the sell-out crowd of 8,400 spurred the Wolfpack on to a 14-point lead in the first half. It gave the Pack a little extra fight on the boards, as it out-rebounded Marist 20-10 in the opening half.
They cheered the offense, especially when freshman Dennis Horner contributed seven quick points.
And they cheered the hard-working defense as it held the Red Foxes without a field goal for nearly seven minutes midway through the first half. Marist made just six of its 25 first-half field goal attempts (24 percent). Meanwhile, the Wolfpack was well on its way to its fifth consecutive game of shooting better than 50 percent from the field.
The combination of those things gave the Wolfpack a 15-1 scoring run that paved the way for a 33-19 halftime advantage.
The second half wasn’t pretty, as the Wolfpack committed 12 of its 20 turnovers in the game. The Red Foxes (25-9) made a run at NC State’s lead, thanks to better shooting from the field and a technical foul on Horner. They cut the lead to 49-43 with 5:32 remaining in the game, but a defensive steal by Atsur led to a three-point possession by the Wolfpack after Atsur made one of two free throws and teammate Gavin Grant scored on an offensive rebound of Atsur’s miss.
Marist, led by senior guard Will Whittington’s five 3-pointers and game-high 18 points, never got closer than six the rest of the way.
Redshirt freshman Brandon Costner was also whistled for a technical foul with 1:43 remaining in the game, expressing his frustration with several calls that went the other way.
Five Wolfpack players scored in double figures, headed by sophomore Ben McCauley’s 19. Horner and Grant added 13 apiece, Atsur had 12 and Costner 10.
The game was a milestone for Lowe, whose team was picked to finish last in the ACC, yet managed to advance to the ACC Tournament title game down in Tampa, Fla. The victory was the 20th of the year, allowing Lowe to join Case, Press Maravich and Les Robinson as the only NC State coaches to win 20 games in their first season. A win Tuesday would tie Maravich’s mark of 21 wins in 1965, which is second only to Case’s 26 wins in 1947, the year his team advanced to the NIT semifinals in Madison Square Garden.
With a win on Tuesday, Lowe would match Case’s feat of 60 years ago, reaching the semifinals of a national tournament in his first season as head coach.
You may contact Tim Peeler at tim_peeler@ncsu.edu.
