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WASHINGTON— Anthony Grundy walked ever so slowly back to the bench, arms folded over his head.
Nearly 15 minutes remained in Friday’s NCAA Tournament first-round game, and his day was all but done. Four fouls. A six-point deficit. The game was out of his hands.
A clear turning point — for the Wolfpack.
Playing inspired basketball without its leading scorer, rebounder and playmaker, N.C State reeled off a 22-5 run to knock off Michigan State 69-58 Friday afternoon. The win sent the Wolfpack into a second-round game Sunday against No. 2 Connecticut at 2:30 p.m. at the MCI Center.
“I was immensely proud of the way our guys responded in the second half,”N.C.State head coach Herb Sendek said. “We cut harder, our defense picked up. Our guys really demonstrated tremendous constitution.”
The Pack (24-11) picked apart Michigan State in unusual ways. Gone was the 3-point shooting and the multitude of backdoor layups. Led by Julius Hodge, the Wolfpack attacked the basket with reckless abandon, used full-court pressure all 40 minutes to keep the Spartan offense off-balance and defended Michigan State’s size with ease.
But the biggest oddity of all was that Grundy wasn’t involved. N.C. State, after trailing 30-18 at halftime, pulled within 37-31 when Grundy picked up his fourth foul. He sat down with 14:47 to play and stayed there until the 3:59 mark.
“Anthony’s a very good player and when he went out of the game we needed someone to step up and make shots,”said Hodge, who led the charge with 16. “I kind of took it upon myself to make some big plays, get my teammates involved. Today the ball fell into my hands at the right places and I made some plays.”
Hodge had plenty of help. Ilian Evtimov scored 10 of his 12 points in the second half as both freshmen took advantage of their quickness.
Before Grundy had a chance to get comfortable on the sideline, Hodge drove on the Spartans (19-12) for back-to-back three-point plays, tying the game at 37-all. The duo then scored 11 straight points, capped by Evtimov’s drive to the hoop from the 3-point line, right around the bigger but slower Adam Ballinger.
“We wore down and they took it at us in the second half,”Spartans head coach Tom Izzo said.“We just couldn’t stop the dribble drive and that was the difference in the game.”
It wasn’t the only one, though. N.C. State’s pressure defense helped force 16 turnovers, but most importantly, limited MSU’s effectiveness. Time and again, Michigan State point guard Marcus Taylor got the ball in his hands with the shot clock running down and options running out.
“We’re a team that needs energy on defense to create easy opportunities for ourselves,”said guard Archie Miller, who was limited to eight points but had three steals. “Playing against a team like Michigan State that can grind you out on the halfcourt, it’s going to be hard all game to just go at them and go at them.”
The final part of the defensive puzzle came from 6-foot-8 sophomore Marcus Melvin, who played most of the game around the 3-point arc, hounding Taylor. The Big Ten’s leading scorer and assist man finished with 18 points, but missed 17 of 22 shots, including a 3-for-13 effort from the 3-point line.
“Early on I wasn’t getting a lot of offense, but I didn’t worry about that too much. I just wanted to do things defensively,”said Melvin, who scored just five points, all at the line. “I guess because I was taller than him (Taylor), he might’ve thought I was slow.
“The average big man probably wouldn’t be able to challenge him like that, but I’m not the average big man.”
Melvin wasn’t the only State player missing in action on offense in the early going. The Wolfpack set a season-low for points in the first half with 18, and its 25-percent shooting was the lowest ever for the team in 46 NCAA Tournament games.
Michigan State cruised into the locker room with a 30-18 advantage, but Miller opened the second half with a 3-pointer from the corner and Grundy hit two buckets to narrow the gap to three points.
After shooting 6-for-24 in the opening half, N.C.State made its first five field goals of the second and finished 67 percent for the half.
“Once you get some easy buckets, guys start playing with a little more confidence and a little more freedom,”Miller said. “It just went down a little bit easier. It all keyed right from the defense.
“We just chipped it away so fast it was easier to play.”
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Contact Steve Hanf at 704-797-4256 or shanf@salisburypost.com
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