WINSTON-SALEM— It was a good thing N.C. State and Wake Forest played basketball
Tuesday night.Somebody had
to win between the two slumping Atlantic Coast Conference teams that desperately needed a
W.
It turned out to be the
homestanding Demon Deacons, who turned on another pathetic crowd with a 71-53 shellacking
of the suddenly downtrodden Wolfpack.
Wake (14-11 ACC, 5-7 overall) had
lost seven of nine. N.C. State, which was ranked in the Top 25 just last week, had fallen
three straight times.
No one knew what to expect and
Wake gave all of those empty seats a dose of the unexpected. The Demon Deacons shot out to
a 21-5 lead and held the reeling Pack to a miserable 15 first-half points, a season low.
“This was the same thing they
did to us in Raleigh,” said Wake center Darius Songaila, who led the Deacs with 20.
“Tonight, we took the ball right at them.”
Wake Forest head coach Dave Odom
admitted his team seldom gets off to fast starts, one of the main reasons it has gone from
an 8-1 record to just two games better than .500 going into last night.
“Tonight was a special time
for us,” he said. “One of the things I seek is consistency. I like to know what
to expect. That has not happened this year. We’ve been up and down worse than an
elevator.”
The only thing going up and down
for the Deacons on this night was the ball swishing through the hoop. Wake shot 50 percent
in the first half and finished at 54 percent, its best shooting night in two seasons.
The score was 9-0, then 15-2,
leaving an exasperated Sendek urging on his team in vain.
“Wake Forest gave us a quick
knockout punch,” he said. “You have to credit them for a great defensive job. We
had trouble finishing around the basket.”
Songaila scored eight of the
team’s first 15, getting Damon Thornton in early foul trouble. Rafael Vidaurreta and
freshman Josh Howard were also dominating the Pack, who was again playing without injured
Ron Kelley and Marshall Williams.
Howard’s lane jumper and
rebound basket put Wake up 33-15 at the half.
N.C. State (15-8, 5-7) shot just
6-of-26 in the first 20 minutes.
“I can’t put my finger
on the start,” said Justin Gainey. “We just came out slow.”
“The truth is somewhere in
the middle,” Sendek added. “A great job by them and us not hitting on all
cylinders.”
Anthony Grundy, for instance,
broke down completely. After scoring 30 against the Deacs in the Pack win in Raleigh, he
shot just 1-of-6 in the first half and 2-of-10 overall.
“I promise you we did nothing
but give him the respect he deserves,” Odom said. “He’s earned that in this
league.”
The scary part for the Deacon fans
was that they knew Wake could just as easily do an about-face after intermission and play
like the Pack had in the first.
But their fears were put to rest
after an Ervin Murray layup and a Robert O’Kelley three had Wake’s lead at22,
42-20.
“When you’re not
accustomed to having a lead, you’re worried about being tentative,” said Odom.
“I didn’t think we were. We continued to attack.”
Thornton picked up his fourth foul
with Wake up 42-26 but came back in with 8:47 left. He quickly fouled out for the eighth
time this season.
“We needed him on the
floor,” Sendek shrugged when asked why he brought Thornton back in. “It’s
no more complicated than that.”
Songaila, meanwhile, also returned
at the eight-minute mark with four fouls. He stayed in the game and scored six late
points.
“We needed him in there to
shoot free throws,” Odom said. “He’s as steady as we’ve got.”
Even without Thornton, its best
rebounder, N.C. State made a couple of runs behind freshman Damien Wilkins, who scored all
21 of his points in the second half. A 10-0 spurt pulled the Pack within 45-36. The
deficit was 58-48 after a three-point play by Wilkins.
But that’s when N.C. State
began to fade. Josh Shoemaker got loose for two dunks and Howard added a slam. When Craig
Dawson drilled a three with a few seconds remaining, Wake had its 20-point lead back.
“It looked like a lack of
depth,” Odom said. “Without Kelley and Williams, they looked a little tired to
me. We had everybody available.”
What’s available for these
two teams over the next couple of weeks is anybody’s guess.
n
NOTES: Thornton broke a finger on
his shooting hand in a practice earlier in the week. ... Wake is 10-0 when scoring at
least 70 points. ... Howard had 14 points and Vidaurreta 10 for Wake. ... It gets no
easier for the wolfpack, which meets No. 3 Duke Saturday in Raleigh. Wake hosts Maryland. |
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