At the end of the day they don’t ask how, but by how many. The NC State men’s basketball team defeated the visiting Tennessee State Tigers 67-55 in overtime in its first game at the newly renovated Reynolds Coliseum Saturday.
Senior forward Beejay Anya had one of the best games of his career for the Wolfpack (7-2), grabbing his first-career double-double and finishing with 12 points, 14 rebounds and seven blocks. He showed off his size and power with several drives to the hoop finishing and drawing fouls. He even connected on six free throws against the Tigers (7-2), a rarity for the big man.
“The game was really physical,” Anya said. “The team we played today was one of those teams that you have to bring your ‘A’ game, you have to show your toughness. That’s one of the things I’m good at is being tough. I started off early and got myself going.”
Redshirt senior guard Terry Henderson led the Pack with 21 points, closely followed by freshman point guard Dennis Smith Jr. with 19. The pair combined for 14 points in the five-minute overtime session.
The Reynolds’ crowd was ready for this game, providing an electric atmosphere right off the opening tip off.
“The atmosphere today, the intimacy, the loudness, what a great college basketball environment today,” head coach Mark Gottfried said. “It helped us; there’s no doubt about it. Our crowd helped us. They were loud, they were into it, they were enthusiastic. Our fans were just phenomenal today; I’m glad we were able to pull one out for them.”
The back-and-forth nature of the game continued throughout the first half, and redshirt sophomore forward Christian Mekowulu slammed home a dunk at the buzzer to give Tennessee State a 30-28 lead at the break.
Led by Anya, the Pack’s defense got going in the second half, playing its best stretch of the season grabbing several blocks and defensive rebounds to hold the Tigers scoreless for over eight minutes.
“What more can you say; the guy [Anya] affected the game in just about every way,” Gottfried said. “Defensively, it was a great matchup game for him. They had a big guy in there like him that was really strong. Offensively, he did a good job of getting the ball around the rim and scoring, he made a couple foul shots. Blocked shots, defensive rebounds; he affected the game in a lot of different ways and was a big factor.”
The teams went back and forth for the rest of the first half, and Smith tied the game at 50 with a shot in the paint from a tough angle with 45 seconds left. The Pack came up with a steal on the ensuing Tennessee State possession, getting the ball back with 21.7 to play.
Smith’s layup attempt was blocked, setting up an inbounds pass for the Pack with one second left. The team could not get a shot off before time expired, sending the game to overtime.
The Pack scored the first three points of overtime on an Anya free throw and Smith layup, but Tennessee State responded with five straight to go up by two about a minute and a half in. A key moment came when redshirt senior forward Wayne Martin, who led the Tigers with 16 points, fouled out early in overtime.
Henderson then got the Pack the lead back with a three at the 2:57 mark, and Smith came up with a steal at the other end directly after. The Pack came up empty on that possession, giving the Tigers a chance to take the lead with a little over a minute remaining. The defense came up with the ball again; however, and Smith knocked in a layup and made a free throw on a 3-point play, giving the Pack a four point lead as part of the team’s game ending 14-0 run.
“I told Dennis as soon as we went to overtime, ‘Let’s get this win,’” Henderson said. “ ‘Let’s finish it out’; they were a good team. They had a couple votes to be in the top 25. For us to come back and get that win is great.”
The team then came up with two straight steals, turning them into a layup for redshirt sophomore Torin Dorn and four good free throws off a foul and technical for Henderson for a 65-55 lead with 17.2 to play. The game finished with a Smith windmill jam that made it 67-55 and blew the roof off of Reynolds.
The Pack will return to PNC Arena next week, taking on the Appalachian State Mountaineers on Thursday as freshman Omer Yurtseven will make his regular-season debut after serving a nine-game suspension to start the season.
Red shirt Senior guard, Terry Henderson, dribbles the ball pass a Tennesse State player during the game at Reynolds Coliseum. Henderson lead the team with a total of 21 points throughout the game against TSU. The Wolfpack won the game on Saturday, December 10, 2016, with a score of 67-55.
