North Carolina State University Athletics
North Carolina takes 93-76 victory over Pack
1/31/2009 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
BY TIM PEELER
RALEIGH, N.C. North Carolina All-America forward Tyler Hansbrough scored 31 points to lead the No. 5 Tar Heels to a 93-76 victory over NC State Saturday afternoon at the RBC Center.
The Tar Heels took a 12-point lead into halftime and withstood every attempt the Wolfpack made to cut into that lead in the second half.
The Tar Heels built its biggest lead of the game at 54-36 when Wayne Ellington hit a pair of free throws with 16:45 remaining in the game, but State chipped that down to seven points over the next eight minutes, thanks in great part to senior forward Courtney Fells’ outside shooting.
The senior from Shannon, Miss., hit four 3-pointers in the second half en route to a team-high 22 points for the Wolfpack, his second consecutive game of more than 20 points.
“I was afraid there in the second half that Courtney Fells was going to hit every single shot,” UNC coach Roy Williams said. “He causes some defensive matchup problems for us.”
But every time State got inside of 10 points, the Tar Heels answered with a scoring spurt that kept the Wolfpack at arms’ length. When the margin was down to seven, after a Trevor Ferguson baseline jumper with 8:19 remaining, North Carolina went on a 9-1 spurt.
“It was very frustrating, because we worked so hard getting it close, then once we get it there, something killed the momentum and they would pull away a gain,” said junior Brandon Costner, who had 13 points for the Wolfpack.
When State chipped it back down to eight on a pair of free throws by junior Dennis Horner, Carolina reeled off 11 in a row to put the game out of reach. The final basket in the run was an open 3-pointer by Hansbrough to put his team ahead 89-72.
“Every time we made a run, they made big plays,” said Horner, who had 12 points and four rebounds. “I guess that’s what a winning team does. We made some mistakes during that time and they capitalized on it.”
Horner spent much of the game forcing Hansbrough to take tough shots. Hansbrough hit 12 of 17 shots on the night, most of them strongly contested.
“He’s a great player,” Horner said. “We forced him to take some tough shots and he knocked them down. That’s what good players do.”
The Tar Heels built its lead by getting second-chance points and scoring inside. UNC also outscored the Pack 46-16 in the paint, forcing Lowe’s team to take 26 3-point shots.
“We must have missed six or seven layups in the paint, so we had opportunities and we had wide-open looks on the perimeter,” Lowe said. “Our lack of made shots was us not being able to convert inside.”
In the first half, the Wolfpack had difficulty making shots, hitting just 12 of 37 for a 32.4 shooting percentage.
Ahead by six with three minutes to play in the first half, the Tar Heels outscored State 8-2 to take a 43-31 lead into intermission.
The Wolfpack (11-8 overall, 2-5) plays its final non-conference game Tuesday against North Carolina Central at 7 p.m. at the RBC Center.
You may contact Tim Peeler at tim_peeler@ncsu.edu.
