North Carolina State University Athletics
NC State
St. Bonaventure
Leslie's Heroics Push State Over St. Bonaventure
12/20/2011 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Dec. 20, 2011
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ROCHESTER, N.Y. - C.J. Leslie's miraculous layup with 0.8 seconds left gave NC State a 67-65 victory over St. Bonaventure on Tuesday night at Blue Cross Arena.
C.J. Williams threw an inbounds cross-court pass from the opposite baseline that Leslie corralled, pivoted and dropped in an off-balanced layup that bounced once around the rim and fell through the net as the Wolfpack escaped with the win, improving to 7-4 on the season.
The final 8:05 of the game saw neither team lead by more than three points after a nine-point spurt by State, fueled by five from Scott Wood, and two dunks from Leslie, including a thundering alley-oop from Alex Johnson put the visitors up 55-52 with 8:05 to play. The Bonnies had pieced together a 52-46 lead before the Wolfpack run.
Wood, who scored a season-high 20 points, drilled a falling-away jumper to give State a 61-60 lead with 2:06 left.
The Bonnies came up empty at the other end, and State capitalized when Wood found C.J. Williams underneath for just his second bucket of the game, and a 63-60 lead.
However, Matthew Wright sunk a three-pointer and it was 63-all with less than a minute to play.
Wood stayed perfect from the line with two free throws for a 65-63, but Bona's Eric Mosley answered with two of his own from the charity stripe with two seconds to go.
That set up the heroics when Leslie hauled in a football-style pass from Williams. Leslie scored 12 points on the night.
The Bonnies scored the game's first seven points forcing State to call a timeout two minutes into the game. The lead extended to 9-0, before Lorenzo Brown found the back of the net with a mid-range jumper to get the Pack going in the right direction.
Two more buckets from State cut it to 9-6, before Demitrius Conger (16 points) got a favorable bounce on a three-pointer and Andrew Nicholson (16 points) layed one in for a 14-8 Bona's lead at the first media timeout.
A steal and fast-break layup from Wood made it just a one-point, 22-21, deficit midway through the first half.
The first Wolfpack lead came by way of consecutive deep NBA three-pointers from Alex Johnson (nine points). After trailing by nine, the Pack led 29-24, in front of a partial SBU crowd that was announced at 5,802.
Johnson hit his third deep ball of the half and it was 34-26 State with just under five minutes until halftime. The Toronto, Ontario, native had made just seven three's all year but was in good form off the bench on Tuesday.
It was 34-all, before Wood unleashed what he does best, a three-ball from the corner, but a last second jumper gave St. Bona a 39-37 lead at the break.
St. Bonaventure falls to 5-5.
State turns around and hosts Northeastern Thursday night at 7 p.m., from RBC Center.
