Were they looking ahead to Saturday?

The Pack dropped a tough one in Winston-Salem last night. After blowing a 16 pt 1st half lead, and climbing out of a 10 pt hole in the 2nd half, the Pack couldn't hit the free throws and shots within 10 ft of the basket to take the win. State lost 86-84 after cutting Wake's 10 pt lead down to 1 with under 2 minutes to play. Were the Pack looking past the weaker Deacons (who played a good game) thinking about Saturday's match-up with the hated Tarheels? Maybe. Early foul trouble had CJ Leslie AND Scott Wood on the bench with 12 minutes left in the first half. The subs responded and the Pack seemingly had the game in hand. So much that Mark Gottfried never put his 2 stars and best shooters back in during the 1st half. A 16 pt lead was cut to 12 by the half. The Pack lead 47-35. the announcers were praising State for scoring 50 in the half with about 2 minutes left. They missed a few shots and let Wake draw a little closer instead of scoring 50. Turnovers, poor shooting and lack-luster rebounding plagued the Wolfpack through much of the 2nd half. Fouls also played a part as players with 3 and 4 fouls played timid defense as though they were afraid to pick up the foul. The Deacons aggresively went right at Leslie and he basically stepped aside to avoid fouling, he was called for goal tending twice. The play that really seemed to turn the game around was after Wake made a shot to cut the lead to 10, State's in-bounds pass was stolen and by Wake and they scored an easy 2. There were several things that went the Pack's way in the last minute that should have lead to a win. A turn over by Wake, offensive rebounds, Scott Wood WIDE OPEN for a 3, he missed. CJ Leslie scored and the clock had .07 seconds showing. The refs put 1.2 on the clock, Wake threw a long inbounds pass which was stolen by TJ Warren, but his half court shot never had a chance.


But that one is behind us. Now we have to get ready to play the Tarheels on Saturday. If motivation was a factor in last night's game, it will not be a problem Saturday. The Heels have beaten the pack for 6 years straight. And the seniors on this team don't want to finish their careers at State having never beaten those jerks! (I did say that I would TRY to keep this blog positive. I never promised I would.) To return to the positive tone I try to set, Richard Howell and Lorenzo Brown became the 47th and 48th players in NC State history to score 1000 points. They both recorded double-double last night as well.