North Carolina State University Athletics
Wood, Gonzalez Lead Pack Into ACC Semis
3/13/2010 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
BY TIM PEELER
GREENSBORO, N.C. – There is a billboard here on Lee Street, just across from the Greensboro Coliseum, with a larger-than-life picture of NC State head coach Sidney Lowe that reads: "This is Wolfpack Country."
The Wolfpack women drove by it every day last weekend as they made their run to the ACC title game. The men, who are staying on the other side of town, haven't seen it yet, but following the 11th-seeded Pack's 58-52 victory Friday night over third-seeded Florida State, Lowe planned to make the team bus driver make a detour so his team could see it.
For now, Lowe's red-jacketed image is up there, but last weekend it could have changed over to Nikitta Gartrell or head coach Kellie Harper. Yesterday, it could have been junior Tracy Smith or freshman Richard Howell.
But there is no doubt who should be the poster-boy for the red-wearing Wolfpack faithful heading into Saturday's 4 p.m. semifinal game against seventh-seeded Georgia Tech: Scott Wood.
The freshman guard from Marion, Ind., set the NC State record for 3-pointers in an ACC Tournament game with six and scored a game-high 18 points, leading his team to its fifth win in the last six games.
"He really got it going," Lowe said of his young player. "What was good was that his teammates believed in him. They did a good job of setting screens for him."
Saturday's game will be the Wolfpack's third trip to the semifinals in the last six years, two of which have come under fourth-year coach Lowe, who now owns a 5-3 record in the tournament.
Earlier this year, Wood made an NC State freshman-record seven 3-pointers with 31 points against the Seminoles in Tallahassee, Fla., but has been relatively quiet ever since. But in the early going of Friday night's game, he worked his way free through several screens and helped keep the Wolfpack in the game by making his first three shots from beyond the arc.
Then, in the first six minutes of second half, Wood hit three more, pushing the Wolfpack's lead to 46-37 with 13:33 remaining. For the game, he was six of 10 from 3-point range.
"The only way to describe it is that it's kind of like the movie 'The Matrix,' where once you get going everything kinds of slows down and the basket just seems to be a little bigger," said Wood, who is now 13-for-20 from 3-point range in his two games against Florida State. "It seems like no one is around you, there is no noise and the only thing you have to do is focus on getting your feet set and seeing the rim."
The young guard seems to like the home of the ACC Tournament: Combined with Friday night's 2-for-2 performance against Clemson and a 5-for-7 outing against UNC Greensboro on New Year's Eve, Wood has made 13 of the 19 3-point shots he has taken in the coliseum.
"He knows we are playing in Greensboro," said junior Tracy Smith. "Maybe we will just tell him that the rest of our games are against Florida State."
However, Wood's performance was not a single-handed effort. In fact, he did not score after making his sixth 3-pointer. His primary help came from injured junior Javi Gonzalez, who was recovering from an ankle sprain he suffered in Thursday's victory over Clemson.
He arrived Friday evening at the coliseum wearing a stabilizing boot, but he still managed to play a gutsy 30 minutes against the Seminoles, hitting floaters in the lane and handling Florida State's pressure defense with six assists and only two turnovers. He also added 13 points, as did Smith.
"In that second half, Javi took control of the ball game, on both ends," Lowe said. "He was pressing the ball on defense, and really causing them problems, forcing them to start their offense out a little further.
"On the offensive end, he made the right reads. When he had opportunities to get in there and shot the little mid-range floaters, he did that."
After Wood hit his final shot, the two teams slugged it out in physical action. Florida State managed to smother Smith and freshman Richard Howell, but they could not slow down the Wolfpack guards, who made seven of 15 shots from 3-point range on the night.
Despite its considerable size advantage, the Seminoles could never get closer than four points, as the Wolfpack guards hounded Florida State into making 19 turnovers.
None of those was bigger than the final one of the game, when Gonzalez intercepted a Seminole pass on the baseline, then led his team down the court, holding on to a 52-48 lead. Gonzalez found Smith under the basket for an uncontested dunk, pushing t he lead to 54-48 with 1:52 to play.
Gonzalez and Smith teamed up again on the Wolfpack's next possession, when the guard found Smith on the baseline for a fall-away jumper just as the 35-second shot clock expired. The Seminoles furiously tried to rally, but the Wolfpack sealed the victory at the free throw line.
Wood also played a pivotal role when he grabbed a rebound after FSU missed three 3-pointers on the same possession with less than 30 seconds to play.
"What I like about this team, you don't know who is going to be our leader on any given night," said Lowe, who led his team to the ACC title game in his first season in 2007. "That first team, we pretty much knew that it would be Engin [Atsur], Brandon [Costner] or Ben [McCauley].
"On this team, you don't know if it will be Scott or Tracy or Javi or Dennis [Horner] or Richard. You don't know. That's a good thing. You don't know who is going to lead us."
The Wolfpack (19-14) became the third lower seed of the day to advance to Saturday's semifinals, joining No. 12 Miami and seventh-seeded Georgia Tech. State will face the Yellow Jackets in the second semifinal, which is slated to begin after the 1:30 p.m. meeting between Duke and Miami.
The Wolfpack seized the lead at the beginning of the second half when Wood hit his fourth 3-pointer of the game and senior Farnold Degand followed with his first shot from beyond the arc. Gonzalez banked in a runner off the glass for the Wolfpack's eighth consecutive point.
Wood added two more long shots over the next five minutes as the Wolfpack pushed its lead to as many as nine points, 46-37 with 13:33 remaining.
The previous record for most 3-pointers by a Wolfpack player in a single ACC Tournament game was five on three different occasions. Scooter Sherrill set it in 2003 against Georgia Tech and Ilian Evtimov matched it twice 2005 against both Florida State and Wake Forest.
You may contact Tim Peeler at tim_peeler@ncsu.edu.
