The NC State men’s basketball team lost a nail-biter to the Wake Forest Demon Deacons, 93-88, Saturday afternoon in PNC Arena.
State’s loss gave Wake Forest head coach Danny Manning his first ACC road victory during his three-year tenure. The Wolfpack also aided in snapping the Deacons’ streak of 25-straight ACC road losses.
The Wolfpack came out with plenty of energy as it found itself holding a 19-10 advantage just about seven minutes into the action. Sharp shooting and good ball movement allowed NC State’s offense to hit on all cylinders early. The team shot a sizzling hot 65.5 percent from the floor in the first half and chalked up 13 assists.
The fantastic scoring effort was led by junior forward Abdul-Malik Abu, who finished the opening half with 17 points on 8-of-11 shooting. Abu got off to a hot start, as he consistently hit mid-range jumpers. However, it was a tale of two halves, as the big man was limited to only three points by the Deacons in the second half.
“Any loss is disheartening,” Abu said. “We want to go out there and win every game, but we have such a quick turn-around. This is one we can’t dwell on. We just have to keep looking forward and put our best effort ahead of us.”
Freshman sensation Dennis Smith Jr. was also a main factor in the team’s high-scoring performance, as he came just three rebounds shy of yet another triple-double. Smith finished the contest with 15 points, 13 assists and seven rebounds. The floor general was a dominant facilitator early as he had nine of his assists in the first half alone. He put on his usual stat-sheet-stuffing performance, but it simply wasn’t enough to make up for the team’s defensive mental lapses and long dry spells offensively.
The sloppy overall play put forward by the Pack was what Wake Forest capitalized on. Points off turnovers and poor defense was what kept NC State’s in-state rival in the game. The Demon Deacons scored 18 of their points off of the Wolfpack’s poor handling of the basketball and at times scored with little resistance offered by State.
“We had some mental errors defensively,” head coach Mark Gottfried said. “It just seems like those add up against us pretty quick.”
Foul trouble was also a major factor in NC State’s collapse. Three members of the NC State’s starting five picked up their first two fouls well before halftime. Redshirt senior guard Terry Henderson, freshman center Omer Yurtseven and Smith got in early foul trouble, and Smith’s time on the bench was immediately felt. Without Smith conducting the offense, the Wolfpack sputtered with three-straight turnovers that sparked a 9-0 Wake Forest run, giving the Deacons their first lead since very early in the game.
NC State seemed to be the more talented team; however, to its detriment, just didn’t take care of the little things. Over the course of the game, the Pack simply wore down and the shots stopped falling. When all else failed, it was evident that the team didn’t have the fundamental prowess to carry them over. The turnovers, lax defense and foul trouble continued to plague the Wolfpack.
Yurtseven fouled out with a little under six minutes to go, and Wake Forest’s sophomore forward John Collins continued to do damage. The NC State bigs had no answer, as Collins led all scorers with 21 points while adding nine rebounds and one block. Abu also fouled out of the contest; however, his fifth foul came with less than a minute remaining. The bigs’ foul trouble may have played a role in the four-guard lineup Gottfried went with many times in the game.
Even with all these compounding factors, an amazing flurry of Henderson scoring eight points in a span of 24 seconds brought the Wolfpack back within two points with 17 seconds left. What came after was a handful of controversial calls that sent many State fans into a frenzy. A no-call on a dunk by Smith with some contact by Collins, an out-of-bounds call against Henderson that wasn’t reviewed and the call of a block where it looked like the Wake Forest player stepped out of bounds all helped to put the nail in the coffin for this game.
The Wolfpack has a quick turnaround as it travels to Cameron Indoor Stadium to take on its Tobacco Road rivals, the Duke Blue Devils, Monday at 7 p.m.
