NC State
Delaware State
Wood's Last-Second Shot Lifts Wolfpack
12/22/2010 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Dec. 22, 2010
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RALEIGH, N.C. - Sophomore Scott Wood scored on a follow shot with 2.1 seconds remaining, as NC State survived a scare from Delaware State Wednesday night at the RBC Center to take a 72-70 victory.
The Hornets tied the score with a pair of free throws by leading scorer Casey Walker with 37.6 seconds remaining on the clock. The Wolfpack called time out and held the ball for the final shot, with freshman Ryan Harrow taking a 3-pointer from the wing.
Wood rebounded the ball in the lane and made his only basket of the night with less than a second on the shot clock.
Delaware State called two timeouts and got a halfcourt shot from Jay Threatt that actually hit the front of the rim and caromed off the backboard as time expired.
“I’ll tell you something, I’m just glad we won the ball game,” head coach Sidney Lowe said. “We made a lot of mistakes defensively and let guys wide open that shouldn’t have been and it about cost us the ball game.
“We talked about it on the sidelines: you don’t leave 3-point shooters for any reason. It’s a mental mistake when you let that happen. You can’t afford to make those types of mistakes.”
The Hornets (4-6) made nine of their 22 shots from beyond the arc, with Walker scoring 12 of his game-high 20 points on 3-point shots. The Wolfpack, meanwhile, made just one of 12 bonus shots.
The Wolfpack (7-4 overall) had a comfortable double-digit lead midway through the second half, but Delaware State began its comeback after Wolfpack freshman C.J. Leslie was called for a technical foul with 12:24 remaining. The Hornets used the four-point possession to get back into the game.
Desi Washington hit a 3-pointer from the deep corner with less than five minutes remaining to give Delaware State its first lead of the second half, and the teams traded baskets until Wood’s basket decided the contest.
The Wolfpack, with a decisive height advantage, got strong scoring from its trio of big men, with sophomore Richard Howell scoring a career-high 16 points and freshman C.J. Leslie adding 15 and ning rebounds.
Sophomore DeShawn Painter helped the Wolfpack overwhelm the Hornets in the latter part of first half, sparking a 12-0 run that seemingly broke the game open. He scored 11 of his 14 points in the opening period.
NC State finished the first half on a 15-5 run and took a 39-29 lead into intermission. The Wolfpack shot 57.7 percent from the field, mostly on dunks and layups against the outsized Hornets.
Delaware State made just 40 percent of its shots in the first half, a shooting percentage that was brought down significantly by its scoring drought over the final five minutes of the half.
“The second half, we didn’t pass the ball,” Lowe said. “We had 11 assists in the first half and ended the game with 14. That tells you how we were passing the ball.
“We weren’t moving the ball like we should have. We need to get better. We need to improve. We need to be taking larger steps than we have, especially when we have the kind of mismatches we had tonight.”
The Wolfpack takes the next six days off for a brief Christmas break, but returns to action next Tuesday at 4 p.m. to face Alabama A&M. Fans should note that the game time has been change from what was originally published to avoid a conflict with the NC State football team’s appearance in the Champs Sports Bowl, which kicks off at 6:30 p.m. at Orlando’s Florida Citrus Stadium.
The Wolfpack women’s game against Fairfield at Reynolds Coliseum also has been moved to 1 p.m.
• Tim Peeler, tim_peeler@ncsu.edu.
