North Carolina State University Athletics
Pack Rolls Over N.C. Central, 77-42
1/30/2010 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
BY TIM PEELER
RALEIGH, N.C. – On a day when most of the Triangle's population was stuck inside because of a January snowstorm, NC State also needed a little time to warm up against North Carolina Central in a sparsely attended afternoon game at the RBC Center.
But once the (Wolfpack 14-8 overall) got started, it sizzled, hitting 78.3 percent of its shots and scoring 50 points in the second half, as it cruised to a 77-42 victory over the Eagles.
The Pack needed a late burst in the first half to overcome the Eagles, who had a similar start last year in a game at the RBC Center. A 15-2 run at the end of the first half and a game-high 23 points from junior Tracy Smith left little doubt to the outcome of the game.
"The first half, we did okay, but we played a lot harder the second half," Smith said. "They opened the game with more energy than we did and we came out in the second half and played harder.
"We knew coming in that it would be a bad-weather day and there wouldn't be a lot of people here, but we said in the lockerroom that we had to create our own energy and we did that in the second half."
Smith, who attended high school at Durham's Mt. Zion Academy, matched the total he scored against Duke, the other team from his adoptive home town. Senior Dennis Horner, the only other Wolfpack player in double figures, finished with 13 points. Everybody on the Wolfpack roster played in the game.
N.C. Central, which shot just 16.7 percent from the field in the second half and just 26.5 for the game, was led by C.J. Wilkerson's 16 points.
In a game played without the Wolfpack pep band, cheerleaders or dance team, State needed a boost of energy to get started. The Eagles owned an 18-12 lead midway through the first half, as the Pack struggled with its shooting in the opening period. But State put together a 15-2 run just before intermission, taking its first lead on a pull-up jumper by senior Dennis Horner with 6:39 remaining in the half.
State led 27-20 at halftime, after Smith hit a five-foot jumper as time expired, for his eighth point of the half.
"We were definitely a little sluggish in the first half," head coach Sidney Lowe said.
But it was scorching in the second half, as the team made 18 of its 23 shots for its best shooting half of the season. Everyone on the roster saw action and several substitutes had crowd-pleasing plays.
Johnny Thomas was fouled on an inside jumper and made the free throw for a three-point play, his first points of the season. Freshman Jordan Vandenberg had a monster dunk over his man for his only bucket of the game. Freshman DeShawn Painter was still diving on the floor for a loose ball with less than five minutes on the clock. And junior walk-on guard Enrico Kufuor tipped away a pass, stole the ball and cruised down the court for a layup for his points of the season.
"I was as proud of those guys as I was of the guys at the beginning," Lowe said. That tells a lot about the character of them."
Before the Wolfpack players left the court, they turned around and applauded the 2,217fans who braved the weather to attend the game. But there was never any danger that the game would not be played: both teams and the game officials spent Friday night at a hotel adjacent to the RBC Center.
The Wolfpack plays its next two games on the road, against Virginia on Wednesday and at Georgia Tech next Saturday. Lowe's team returns to the RBC Center on Feb. 10 to face Virginia Tech in a 9 p.m. contest.
You may contact Tim Peeler at tim_peeler@ncsu.edu.
