North Carolina State University Athletics
Maryland, Vasquez Top NC State, 71-60
3/2/2009 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
BY TIM PEELER
RALEIGH, N.C. Maryland junior guard Greivis Vasquez scored 33 points to lead the Terps to a 71-60 victory over NC State in a disappointing Sunday night loss at the RBC Center.
The Wolfpack (15-12 overall, 5-9 ACC) trailed for the game’s first 30 minutes, but took a brief lead thanks to the inside scoring of sophomore Tracy Smith, who scored seven consecutive points during one stretch for his team.
His three-point play with 9:15 remaining gave the Wolfpack its only lead of the game. He was the Wolfpack’s best option on the next three trips down the court, sandwiching single free throws around an awkward hook shot in the lane.
But those were his only points of the second half, after scoring 12 in the opening period, something that further frustrated Wolfpack head coach Sidney Lowe.
“We wanted to punch it inside and play basic inside-out basketball,” said the coach. “The second half, we didn’t do that enough. We did it some with
The coach was also upset with his team’s 16 turnovers.
“We just had some really bad turnovers that I can’t even explain,” Lowe said. “Overall, I thought we were a little tentative and they were more aggressive.”
After Smith gave his team the lead, Vasquez and Dave Neal hit back-to-back 3-pointers for the Terps and the Wolfpack committed three consecutive turnovers as
“I knew we had the height advantage,” said Smith, who finished with a team-high 19 points. “Our plan was to take advantage of that. We tried, but we just couldn’t quite get the ball inside in the second half. That hurt.”
Sophomore guard Javi Gonzalez had 11 points for the Wolfpack, followed by 10 each for seniors Ben McCauley and Courtney Fells.
“We were lackadaisical and weren’t ready to go in the first half and they jumped on us,” McCauley said. “We thought we were going to come out in the second half to go on a run again, but we couldn’t maintain it.
“It’s very, very, very disappointing.”
The Terps (18-10, 7-7) finished the game with its biggest lead of the night, courtesy of an uncontested 3-pointer at the buzzer by Vasquez, who scored 21 in the second half.
Neal, with 11 points, was
Down by as many as nine points on three occasions in the first half, the Wolfpack scored eight unanswered points from four different players just before intermission to trail 34-33 at halftime.
After Fells and Neal traded 3-pointers to make the score 34-25, Dennis Horner, Ben McCauley, Smith and Fells all scored in succession to close the gap to one point.
Eight costly Wolfpack turnovers allowed
The Wolfpack used its superior size in the paint to stay close, with Smith matching Vasquez’s 12 points in the half. State hit 14 of its 24 field goal attempts in the first half, for a 58.3 shooting percentage.
Lowe’s team closes out its 2008-09 home schedule Wednesday night, when it hosts
You may contact Tim Peeler at tim_peeler@ncsu.edu.
