North Carolina State University Athletics
MBB Travels to UNC Greensboro
12/30/2009 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
NC State Travels to UNC Greensboro: NC State will take a short bus ride down I-40, as the Wolfpack will play its second game in three days at UNC Greensboro on Thursday night at 6:00 p.m. The game will be played at the Greensboro Coliseum, the site of this year's ACC Tournament, and marks NC State's first game ever at UNC Greensboro.
The game will be on Fox Sports Net with Mike Hogewood and Mike Gminski.
The Series Versus UNC Greensboro: Thursday's game between the Wolfpack and the Spartans will be only the seventh meeting between the two schools. This season is the second straight year the teams have played, and the third time in Coach Lowe's four seasons.
The Wolfpack leads the overall series 6-0, with all the wins coming on the Wolfpack's home court. Last season NC State won 79-52 at the RBC Center, and the teams played a thriller in Lowe's first season, with NC State winning 95-93 in overtime in January of 2007.
Last Season Versus UNC Greensboro: Ben McCauley recorded his second straight double-double, 17 points and a career-high 15 rebounds, and Courtney Fells added a game-high 22 points as NC State defeated UNC Greensboro, 79-52, November 30 at the RBC Center. Up 25-18 with six minutes left in the first half, the Pack would go on a 14-4 run, and then opened the second half on another 14-4 run to cushion its lead. The 22 assists were the most for the Pack in 42 games.
Last Time Out for NC State: NC State used a 32-9 run to start the game, as the Wolfpack downed Winthrop 68-52 at the RBC Center Tuesday night. After a start of 7-2 at the first media timeout, NC State would score 27 points on its next 10 possessions and build its lead to 23 points just under 12 minutes into the game. The Pack used a balanced scoring attack, as six players scored at least eight points, and only Dennis Horner (12) and Richard Howell (11) reached double figures. NC State hit a season-high 10 three-points, with Scott Wood and Farnold Degand hitting three apiece.
Second Half Pack: Two times this year the Pack has comeback from double-digit deficits it has faced in the first half. On the season, NC State has outscored its opponents 440-389 in the seconds half of play (36.7-32.4). NC State has outscored the opponent in nine of the 12 games this season, including each of the last six outings.
At Marquette on December 5, NC State overcame an 11-point halftime deficit as the Pack pulled out a 77-73 win. Down 35-25 at the break, NC State opened the second half on an 11-2 run, and used another 17-2 run midway through the half to take control. The Pack shot 71.4 percent (20-28) in that second half, and scored 52 points.
The Pack then avoided a home upset against Elon, pulling out a 79-76 win on December 17. Elon started the game on a 15-7 run, and was up by as many as 11 points at the 2:19 mark in the first half. Down 39-33 at the break, NC State opened the second half on a 7-0 run and captured its first lead since scoring the game's first basket 15 seconds in. The game would stay within five points in the second half, with 11 lead changes, until the Pack finally went up for good with 5:24 left.
NC State almost made it a third game at Arizona on December 23. NC State trailed 31-23 at the half back on December 23, and was down 69-61 with 53 seconds left. The Pack battled back to tie the score at 74-74 with six seconds left, but Arizona hit the gamewinning shot with less than a second to go. Javier Gonzalez led the charge with 16 second-half points, including the Pack's last 10 points in the final 30.4 seconds.
Gonzalez the Offensive Threat: Javier Gonzalez took control of the Pack's point guard position last last season, and has been one of the Pack's top offensive players this season. He currently ranked third on the team in scoring, averaging 11.3 points, and his 64 assists rank him fourth in the ACC and are more than double the next highest Wolfpack player.
Over the last hree games, he has averaged 14.3 points, shooting 50.0 percent (15-30) from the field. Gonzalez has also averaged 7.0 rebounds, including a career-best 10 against Winthrop.
Even more impressive was his play late in recent road games, keeping the Pack within striking distance at Wake Forest and leading a second-half comeback at Arizona.
At Wake Forest, Gonzalez scored 11 straight points for the Pack in the second half, and 13 of the Pack's final 15 points in the game. At Arizona, Gonzalez had 16 second-half points, including the Pack's final 10 points all in the final 30.4 seconds of the game.
Wood Breaks Out of Slump: Freshman forward Scott Wood was thrust into the Pack's starting lineup in the preseason, and started off strong averaging 9.0 points in the first four games of the season. He then went into a bit of a slump, scoring just 2.8 points over the next five outings, including struggling from three-point range hitting just 2-of-18 attempts.
But Wood has returned to his early season form, averaging 9.3 points over the last three games shooting 10-of-22 from the field and 6-of-16 from three-point range. He recently scored a season-high 11 points at Wake Forest, and then hit a season-high three three-pointers against Winthrop.
Rebounding is Team Effort: Even though Tracy Smith ranks fourth in the ACC in rebounding at 9.2 a game, including five double figure efforts, much of the Pack's rebounding could be called a team effort. In the season stats, six different players are averaging between 3.0 and 4.9 rebounds. In each of the Pack's last two games, NC State has posted its top two rebouding games of the season, 42 against Winthrop and 41 at Arizona.
Over the last three games, three different Wolfpack players have reached double figures in rebounds. Smith had 10 at Wake Forest, freshman Jordan Vandenberg (filling in for the suspended Smith) had 11 at Arizona, and Javier Gonzalez pulled down a career-best 10 boards against Winthrop.
Howell Adds Depth: Freshman Richard Howell had to wait a few weeks for his Wolfpack career to start, but now healthy, Howell is a major contributor to the Pack's front line as the back-up at power forward.
He has averaged 10.0 points and 4.5 rebounds in 17.0 minutes of action the last two games. Howell scored nine points in 13 minutes at Arizona, and followed up with career-bests of 11 points and seven boards against Winthrop.
Howell underwent knee surgery in early October, and missed the entire preseason, and sat out the Pack's first four games of the season.
