The NC State men’s basketball team lost its regular season opener for the first time since Nov. 24, 1993, as the Pack fell to the Tribe of William & Mary 85-68 at PNC Arena Friday night.
The Wolfpack (0-1, 0-0 ACC) played uninspired unlike the Tribe (1-0, 0-0 CAA) who played smarter, quicker and just flat out better overall. The loss of veteran players Trevor Lacey and Ralston Turner were clearly felt in Friday night’s performance.
“We got a long way to go,” NC State head coach Mark Gottfried said during the postgame press conference. “The first thing we need to understand is the Sweet 16 run is in the rearview mirror.”
The Wolfpack started out sluggish as they got beat early and often defensively as the Tribe jumped out to an 29-9 lead. William & Mary had incredible speed and athleticism that caught the Pack off guard as they were just simply out hustled by the Tribe.
“They were a tough team to guard,” sophomore forward Abdul-Malik Abu said. “They had a veteran offense, they knew how to read us well, we had trouble making some adjustments. We had a good game plan going in, they just got hot.”
The Pack shot an abysmal 2-for-13 to begin the game, compared to the Tribe’s 7-for-10. Junior guard Anthony “Cat” Barber was not playing well early on as he shot 1-for-5 from the floor to begin the game.
The Pack found a groove midway through the first half, as Abu scored consistently down low and Caleb Martin’s improved shooting ability kept the Wolfpack within striking distance. The two combined for 15 points off of 7-for-13 shooting while the rest of the team had just two points on 1-of-15 shooting.
“We dug ourselves in a big hole,” Abu said. “After we got settled down, we couldn’t creep back up and get out of the hole.”
Martin kept getting hotter and hotter. Finishing the half with a team-leading 15 points, Martin didn’t shy away from shooting the ball going 6-for-10 from the field, 3-for-6 from three-point range. Abu tacked on 11 points on 5-of-11 shooting to go along with five rebounds.
William & Mary couldn’t miss in the first half as they shot 52 percent from the floor, 54 percent from three. Daniel Dixon and Omar Prewitt lead the way for the Tribe with 14 points and 10 points respectively. The Tribe also took 16 free throws compared to the Wolfpack’s six. Entering the break, the Wolfpack trailed the Tribe 51-35.
“You saw a very experienced, well-oiled machine,” Gottfried said. “Playing against a very inexperienced team that didn’t handle the adversity really well.”
Junior guard Terry Henderson left the game in the first half with an ankle sprain and did not return in the second half. Henderson finished with just one rebound on 0-for-3 shooting in his Wolfpack debut.
The second half began much like the first half as the Tribe went on an 11-4 run. Running an offense designed around multiple backdoor cuts, the Tribe gave the Wolfpack a healthy dose of layups and open threes created by their penetration.
“Just overall we couldn’t get enough stops in a row,” Caleb Martin said. “We’d go on a little run, and then we just couldn’t get back on defense and stops in transition.”
Freshman Maverick Rowan seemed to find his shooting stroke as he hit several jumpers to go along with his 16 points. However, his defense was extremely questionable as he kept getting beat left and right all night. He is a freshman, so give him the benefit of doubt, but his defensive skill set needs to vastly improve if the Pack wants to win on a consistent basis.
“We had some breakdowns defensively,” Gottfried said. “It’s as if we’d never practiced a day, but at this point you don’t control that. It’s a long year, there’s a lot of basketball out there.”
As the game reached its later stages, the Pack was able to close the gap to within 10. However, they couldn’t get over that proverbial hump as whenever the State made a run, the Tribe answered with one of its own.
“We were trying to me a 10-point shot every trip,” Gottfried said. “We became rushed and we dug ourselves in a deeper hole. We need to learn to have some poise whatever the score might be, and respond better.”
Dixon led the Tribe with 19 points, followed by Prewitt with 17 and Terry Tarpey with 11. As a team, William & Mary shot 51.7 percent from the floor and 40.9 percent from three.
Caleb Martin led the Wolfpack in scoring with 21 points on 8-of-17 shooting, making five three pointers on 10 tries from deep. Abu finished with a solid 17 points on 8-of-16 shooting with six rebounds. The Wolfpack shot 38.0 percent from the floor and 27.3 percent from three.
The Wolfpack returns to action Sunday night as they host the Jaguars of South Alabama at PNC Arena.
