North Carolina State University Athletics
NC State-UNC-Wilmington Coaches Quotes
2/16/2008 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
NC State coach Jim Valvano
“It was a nice win. It’s nice to have a game like that. That was a great job by Sidney Lowe. He was enjoying the role of shooter tonight. I thought it was Whittenburg out there for a while.
“We needed a game like that. Thurl (Bailey) has been going to the doctor, and Ernie (Myers) has been bothered by his foot. It shows you how important scheduling is.
“We have a five-game season now. Every one of them is important. It’s really a season in itself. How we do will also determine if we make it to post-season play.
On
NOTE: Sidney Lowe’s 23 points tonight is a career high. His previous high of 21 came last year against UT-Chattanooga in the NCAA playoffs and he matched that total this year against Clemson in Reynolds Coliseum.
UNCW Coach Mel Gibson
“I’m proud of our kids and the effort that they gave. They did not back down from State one bit, but we just didn’t have the talent to play with them.
“The tempo in the first half was as good as we could expect. They scored their last three field goals from 3-point range the last one by Gannon hurt us the most. We could have been down only nine at halftime, which would have been a very good half for us.
“The second half, though, we rushed our offense a little and gave them a number of easy scoring opportunities. State had a great deal of talent, especially the one-on-one type of individual talent that we do not see in most of our opponents. When we had to go man-to-man the final few minutes, that was very obvious.
“I felt coming in here that if the shot clock had not been in effect, we would have had our best shot at playing State close in all four of our trips. But with the clock, it was a different ball game.”
