North Carolina State University Athletics
BACK TO '83: Pack's Backcourt Blitzes Clemson
2/9/2008 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
BY TIM PEELER
Because Wednesday night at Reynolds Coliseum, with Dereck Whittenburg still sidelined with a broken foot, the Wolfpack’s backcourt of freshman Ernie Myers, senior Sidney Lowe and sophomore Terry Gannon combined to score 65 of the Pack’s points in a 90-83 win over Clemson.
Myers, the scoring sensation from the
The Wolfpack, leading 51-33 at intermission, hardly noticed that senior forward Thurl Bailey was held scoreless in the first half and rolled to its fourth consecutive victory. Perhaps more importantly, Jim Valvano’s team (13-7 overall, 5-4 ACC) is now over-.500 in the nation’s toughest basketball conference.
“That was unbelievable,” said Clemson coach Bill Foster. “We defensed the big guy really well. But we couldn’t stop Ernie Myers.”
What doomed the Tigers (8-15, 1-8) was a15-point scoring burst near the end of the first half that turned the see-saw contest into a blowout. Gannon started the 18-2 run with a 3-pointer and Lowe poured in six points.
“With the (30-second) clock, there is always the potential for spurts like that,” Valvano said. “There’ll be periods where we’ll play well and they won’t. That’s what happened tonight.
“We started to play well, got a couple of loose balls, and
While Bailey didn’t score in the first half, his defense was still a factor, especially in the scoring run. With the Pack leading 33-31, Clemson had the ball, looking to tie the score. The Tigers had burned the Wolfpack with the 3-point shooting of Marc Campbell and Warren Wallace throughout the first half. But Bailey blocked a shot one of his three on the night to start a fast break, and the Wolfpack never looked back again.
While the game was mostly a blowout, the Tigers did make it interesting a couple of times. Early in the second half, Clemson got the lead to 10 points, but Myers turned a Gannon steal into a breakaway dunk, Gannon hit another 3-pointer and Bailey made one of his few field goals of the night.
In the final minutes, Clemson got the lead under 10 points, after Myers and Lowe missed the front ends of four consecutive one-and-one opportunities, which left a sour taste in Valvano’s mouth after what should have been a pleasing victory.
“We just let down mentally at the end,” said Valvano, upset that his team was out-rebounded 40-33. “We missed some shots and just stood there and watched them.”
Bailey eventually caught fire on offense, even though he hit only three of his 11 shots on the night. He had 10 points in the second half to go along with his nine rebounds and three blocked shots.
“You have games like that and you have to concentrate on other things, like defense,” Bailey said. “My shot just wasn’t falling. What really helped us was
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The Wolfpack will play its final two non-conference games over the next week, hosting Notre Dame in a nationally televised game here on Saturday and UNC-Wilmington next Wednesday.
You may contact Tim Peeler at tim_peeler@ncsu.edu.
