North Carolina State University Athletics
NC State
Elon
Brown Leads Pack To 82-67 Win Over Elon
11/25/2011 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Nov. 25, 2011
Final Stats | Box Score (PDF) 
| Quotes | Photo Gallery - Mark McIntyre 
RALEIGH, N.C. – Sophomore Lorenzo Brown scored a career-high 21 points on Friday night to lead NC State’s men’s basketball team to an 82-67 victory over Elon at Reynolds Coliseum.
In the first of three games this season at the Wolfpack’s previous home for men’s basketball, State grabbed the lead with a 20-2 scoring burst in the opening minutes of the game and never took its foot off the gas pedal, to the delight of the 7,315 spectators in attendance.
“We’re still upset about our loss to Vanderbilt last weekend, so we had some anger to take out tonight,” Brown said. “I thought we played well.”
Not only did Brown perform well while running the offense with his game-high six assists, the Wolfpack (5-1 overall) had three other players with double-figure points to continue its streak of at least three players with 10 or more points in every game this season.
Junior Scott Wood, after missing one game and being hobbled in another with an ankle injury suffered against Princeton, came back strong for the second straight outing, hitting three 3-pointers and scoring 15 points on the night. Wood had 16 in the Wolfpack’s come-from-behind victory against Texas earlier in the week at the Legends Classic consolation finals at the Izod Center in East Rutherford, N.J.
“It’s not 100 percent, by any means, but I’m getting the job done, so I can’t complain,” Wood said afterward.
Sophomore C.J. Leslie scored 13 points and had eight rebounds on the night, while senior C.J. Williams had 10 points. Junior DeShawn Painter had eight points and a game-high nine rebounds for the Wolfpack.
"It was a good team win for us tonight against a team that will win a lot of games this year," said head coach Mark Gottfried. "We had a lot of guys who made a lot of contributions on both ends of the floor.
"In the first half, I thought Lorenzo was terrific. He's getting better and better in reading what he needs to do in the open floor and getting the ball to the open man."
Brown also took advantage of his height advantage to put more points on the board by driving the ball to the basket.
"It's good to have a point guard who is unselfish," Wood said of his teammate. "But sometimes Lorenzo needs to look for his shot more and score more points instead of always looking to pass."
Elon grabbed a quick 5-1 lead in the first three minutes of the game, but the Pack went on a 20-2 scoring run in a 10-minute flurry to break open the game.
Williams started the outburst with a turnaround jumper near the top of the key and Wood came off the bench to nail back-to-back 3-pointers, giving his team a 17-7 lead. Brown and Painter scored in the lane to end the sequence.
Elon eventually cut the Pack’s lead down to less than 10 points late in the half, but the Wolfpack took a 43-32 lead into intermission and led by double figures throughout the rest of the game.
Led by the recovering Wood, the Wolfpack was a perfect 3-for-3 from 3-point range in the opening half, but struggled from the free-throw line, making just four of nine chances. That improved to nine of 12 in the second half.
The Phoenix made three of 11 3-point attempts and shot just 42 percent from the field in the first half.
The Wolfpack men will play in Reynolds twice more this season. Since 2002, State has routinely played at least one regular-season game in the on-campus arena since leaving for the RBC Center following the 1998-99 season.
The Pack has not lost in Reynolds since leaving for the RBC, going 11-0 at its former home.
Head coach Mark Gottfried and his squad will return to the historic building on Dec. 12 against North Carolina Central and again on Dec. 29 to face Campbell.
The Wolfpack is back in action next Wednesday against Indiana in the ACC-Big Ten Challenge. Tipoff is scheduled for 7:15 p.m. at the RBC Center.
