North Carolina State University Athletics
No. 3 Tar Heels Take 84-70 Win Over Pack
2/21/2008 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
BY TIM PEELER
The Tar Heels (25-2 overall, 10-2 ACC) scored on 11 of their first 12 possessions following intermission, building as much as an 18-point lead six minutes in that span. At one point the Tar Heels scored 12 unanswered points to go ahead 56-38.
The Wolfpack twice cut the lead to 14 points in the final 10 minutes of the game, but the Tar Heels answered with points from four double-digit scorers.
Junior All-America forward Tyler Hansbrough scored 32 points and had 12 rebounds to lead the Tar Heels, while sophomore Wayne Ellington had 21, Marcus Ginyard had 13 and Quentin Thomas added 10.
“Hansbrough was the best player on the floor tonight,” said Wolfpack coach Sidney Lowe. “We talked about what we needed to do to stop him, but it’s one thing to say it. It’s another thing to do it.”
Hansbrough made 11 of his 19 shots from the field and 10 of his 13 free throws, as well as nine defensive rebounds.
“We were just letting him do what he wanted,” said Wolfpack senior Gavin Grant. “We can’t win like that. We have to play better defense than we did.”
Grant led the Wolfpack (15-11, 4-8) with 16 points, 12 of which came in the first half. Freshman J.J. Hickson added 11 and junior Courtney Fells finished with 10.
NC State coach Sidney Lowe said he was frustrated by his team’s lack of defense throughout the second half, and showed it by sitting several of his starters down for long stretches. Freshman Tracy Smith came off the bench during that stretch and impressed the coach with his effort, as did junior Ben McCauley, but overall it was another incomplete contest for Lowe and his charges.
“The second half, they came out and turned up their offense and we didn’t respond,” Lowe said. “Our defense wasn’t there like it was in the first half. Against a team like that, you have to be solid and focused and we weren’t. They took advantage of it.”
In the first half, the Wolfpack built as much as a six-point lead by preventing the Tar Heels from scoring any transition baskets. But Carolina scored the final six points of the half, on a three-point play by Hansbrough and a 3-pointer by Ellington, to take a 34-31 lead at intermission.
Hansbrough scored 14 for the Heels before intermission, while Grant scored 12 for the Pack.
Grant got the crowd going with 12:38 remaining in the first half, when he caught a pass from sophomore Trevor Ferguson, took two dribbles, went behind his back on Danny Green and made a reverse layup. He was fouled by Marcus Ginyard on the play, converting the three-point play to give the Wolfpack a 13-10 lead.
Soon after, a pair of Costner free throws gave the Pack a four-point lead. But Fells missed a 3-pointer, the Tar Heels scored on an offensive rebound and Ginyard stole the ball from Fells at midcourt for an uncontested dunk to tie the game.
Fells answered with a 3-pointer from the corner, but Hansbrough scored on the other end, as the team traded baskets.
With 8:44 left, Gonzalez hit the first of two inside-out 3-pointers that helped the Wolfpack build its lead. Fells caught an alley-oop pass from Grant that he slammed home with one hand to give the Wolfpack its largest lead of the half, 31-25, with 4:50 to play.
But those were the Wolfpack’s final points of the half, as the Tar Heels scored eight unanswered points, including a three-point play by Hansbrough and a 3-pointer in the final seconds by Wayne Ellington.
“We started to relax a little bit and didn’t execute on offense,” Lowe said. “We allowed them to get a couple of wide-open looks. I don’t know if it was lack of concentration, or what, but it just snowballed from there.”
The Wolfpack returns to action Sunday, when it travels to
You may contact Tim Peeler at tim_peeler@ncsu.edu.
