RALEIGH — Anyone waiting for a letdown from N.C. State’s basketball team will have to wait a little longer.
Three days after waxing ACC rival North Carolina, the Wolfpack added another notch to its belt with Saturday’s 80-61 non-league win over Temple.
“Right now we’re a team with a one-track mind,” senior Archie Miller said at the Entertainment and Sports Arena, where State (16-4) earned its sixth win in the past seven games. “We know what we’re after and we don’t want to slip up. So we’re not focused on the last game or the next one. Just today’s.”
Yesterday’s victory actually took some doing. Temple (6-12) forced State to play its Philadelphia street-ball style in the first half and the results were predictable — the Pack turned the ball over nine times, was outrebounded 17-10 and trailed 30-27 at the break.
“I don’t think we were ready to play in the first half,” said freshman forward Ilian Evtimov. “We were too passive for the way they were coming at us. We never got into our attack mode.”
Temple’s Brian Polk did. A streaky shooter, he hit a couple of 3-pointers and scored 11 points in the first nine minutes. Bulky teammate Kevin Lyde, a 6-10 senior who declared — then withdrew — for last spring’s NBA draft, made a pair of early layups to set the tone.
But it was another Temple player, all-America candidate Lynn Greer, who drew the most attention. “He’s the one we had to stop,” said State’s Julius Hodge, who did just that. “They told me just to try to stay with him.”
Hodge did better than that. The freshman forward from the Bronx defended Greer with the gusto of a rottweiler, limiting him to four harmless free throws midway through the second half. Greer, who averages 22.2 points-per-game, miss all 11 of his field goal attempts.
“We’ve been riding Julius in practice, telling him he needs to pick up his defense,” said State’s Anthony Grundy. “We asked him why New York guys don’t play defense. They only want to handle the ball. I think he took it to heart and responded.”
Temple’s legendary coach John Chaney had nothing but praise for Hodge’s defensive effort.
“Whoever it was, he was very disciplined the way he stuck with Lynn throughout the game,” Chaney said. “Every time we’d set a screen he’d recover and get back on him. And I mean we tried horizontal screens, vertical screens, everything. And when Lynn’s not hitting, we’re in trouble.”
State turned the game around with a 10-2 run to start the second half, then used a 13-0 spree to take a 70-45 lead with 4:37 to play. Temple, meanwhile, missed its first 11 second-half shots and went six-and-a-half minutes without a basket. “We finally got some good stops and that seemed to give us momentum,” said Pack coach Herb Sendek. “It was a good, hard-fought win against a really tough team.”
If State hopes to dance this postseason, it must continue to play like it did in the second half, like March madmen.
“They’re not an easy team to beat,” said Chaney, whose resume includes 662 career wins and 17 NCAA tournament appearances in the past 18 years. “They’re very scrappy and come at you with a lot of energy. Any team that presses the whole game, that takes a lot of effort. I think they have a chance to go far.”
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NOTES: State’s widest margin was provided by local product Scooter Sherrill. His three-point play gave the Pack a 76-50 lead with 3:26 remaining. He finished with four points and an assist in 13 minutes of action.
Grundy continued his stellar season, shooting 9-for-14 from the field and topping all scorers with 20 points. Hodge had 10 points, 7 assists and 7 rebounds. ... Greer, who scored 47 points at Wisconsin on Dec. 5, failed to make a field goal for the first time since January, 2000.
State returns to action Wednesday night when Wake Forest visits the ESA for a crucial ACC contest.
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