Hickson's Free Throws Lift Pack Past FSU, 69-66

BY TONY HAYNES 

Tallahassee, Fla. For the third time in as many outings, NC State was involved in an ACC game that literally went down to the last shot. And for the second time in its unusually dramatic stretch of games, the Wolfpack finished on top.

Freshman center J.J. Hickson put the Pack in front by knocking down a pair of clutch free throws with nine seconds left, then preserved the lead by swatting away Toney Douglas’s driving attempt with three seconds remaining, preserving the Pack’s 69-66 win at Florida State (13-8, 2-4) on Saturday.

Rookie point guard Javier Gonzalez provided the Pack with its final margin of victory by making 1-of-2 free throws with 2.2 seconds left before the Wolfpack (13-6, 2-3) survived a midcourt heave by Douglas that hit the rim at the buzzer.

“We told J.J. to stay in the lane because we knew his guy wasn’t going to go out and shoot a 3,” Lowe said, describing Hickson’s block on Douglas. “Javier was able to get up and stay in front of him and make it tough. Both guys made good basketball plays. The block in the end was huge.”

NC State’s first conference road victory featured a number of heroes. There was guard Courtney Fells, whose tough, banked in 3-pointer with 40 seconds left tied the score at 66. There was also Gonzalez, who played 24 minutes with only one turnover against Douglas, the ACC’s steals leader. As has been his habit, senior forward Gavin Grant also made some big shots and important plays in the second half.

“I’ve said we’ve been making progress in a number of areas,” Lowe said. “Today was another example of that. Our last three ballgames we’ve come out and played pretty hard and today was a great win for our guys.”

Although he played only 25 minutes because of foul trouble, Fells led the scoring parade with 16 points. Battling FSU’s physical defense in the post most of the afternoon, Hickson tallied his sixth double-double with 12 points and 10 rebounds. And after missing his first five shots in the opening half, Grant came alive to score 14 points.

Before Saturday, the road had not been kind to NC State. In lopsided losses at North Carolina and Clemson, the Wolfpack was rarely competitive and never seemed to possess enough firepower or toughness to make a move after falling behind.

The Pack looked like a totally different team on Saturday.

It started with Lowe shaking up his starting line-up. Ben McCauley opened in the spot that had been held down by Brandon Costner. Costner, who has been struggling, continued to have a hard time on Saturday, going scoreless in 12 minutes off the bench.

Primarily a man-to-man team most of the season, the Wolfpack also opened in a 2-3 zone against the smaller, quicker Noles. The zone worked for awhile before Florida State caught fire from the 3-point line. Ralph Mims knocked down a pair of 3’s, then Isaiah Swann added another during a 9-0 run that put FSU ahead 31-19 with 5:08 left in the half.

NC State then put together one of its most impressive stretches of the year. Ignited by pressure man-to-man defense, the Wolfpack scored the last 17 points of the half to grab a 36-31 advantage at intermission.

The 17-0 blitz opened with Grant burying a 3 and then scoring on a layup off of a nice feed from Hickson. Active on the defensive end, forward Dennis Horner also gave the Pack a shot in the arm with a pair of buckets late in the half. Florida State meanwhile, missed its last seven shots of the half, while also turning the ball over five times.

“We walked in at halftime and the first thing I said to the coaching staff is it was fun to watch our energy, our effort and our communication out there on the floor. The defense was solid. Even in the second half our defense wasn’t that bad. We got some fouls, but we were still aggressive with it. I thought our guys did a great job on the defensive end.”

The tightly-played second half featured seven ties and six lead changes.

Douglas who led the Seminoles with 17 points, became a virtual one-man show in the final minutes with his darting drives to the basket.

His 3-point shot with just under three minutes left made it 62-59, Florida State. A minute later, Fells answered with a 3-ball of his own to make it 62-62. With 57 seconds remaining, Douglas got past Gonzalez on a drive and knocked down an off-balance jumper in the lane to put the Noles ahead, 66-63.

After an NC State timeout, Fells came flying off a pindown screen and launched a deep 3 from the top of the key that banged off the glass and through for a 66-66 tie.

“We ran the play and obviously if Courtney is open he’s got the green light to shoot the basketball,” said Lowe. “He took it from a little deeper than I thought he would and banked it. It was about time for us to get one of those. I’ll take it.”

Following Fells’ fortuitous jumper, Douglas tried another dribble drive off of a 1-4 low set, but this time Gonzalez contested the shot and the ball caromed off the rim and into the waiting arms of Hickson, who was fouled hard by Ryan Reid with only nine seconds on the clock.

The rookie big man then calmly dropped a pair, putting the Pack ahead to stay.

Shooting 46 percent from the field (20-of-43), the Wolfpack made 9-of-21 3-pointers. Florida State was 7-of-17 from the arc, but shot just 36.8 percent for the game. The Noles, who lead the nation in free throw accuracy, finished 17-of-20 from the line and won the battle of the boards, 35-28.

“I thought Dennis [Horner] did a good job coming off the bench for us and obviously what Javier did was huge,” said Lowe. “I thought everyone that played did a good job for us.”

North Carolina State University Athletics

Related News

Related Videos