By Aaron Beard
Associated Press
RALEIGHó North Carolina State spent the final minutes of its Atlantic Coast Conference opener turning a comfortable lead into a romping final margin, complete with players jumping around on the sideline to celebrate every crowd-pleasing play.
Wake Forest put up so little resistance ó particularly in the paint ó that its mild-mannered coach was seething by the time the horn sounded.
Tracy Smith scored 23 points to help the Wolfpack beat the Demon Deacons 90-69 on Saturday, marking the programís best scoring output in an ACC game in almost five years.
Freshman C.J. Leslie added 19 points as the Wolfpack (11-4, 1-0) won an ACC opener for the first time under fifth-year coach Sidney Lowe. N.C. State led the entire day, controlled the paint and dominated the boards to win its sixth straight against the Demon Deacons (7-9, 0-1) in Raleigh.
The punctuation came with about 2 minutes left, when Scott Wood grabbed a steal and raced upcourt before leaving the ball to a trailing C.J. Williams for a dunk that made it 90-61 and had Wolfpack fans howling in delight.
ěIt was good to see the guys having fun like that,î Lowe said.
While this performance came against a team that will likely struggle to stay out of the ACC basement, N.C. State reached 90 points for the first time since Loweís first team scored 95 against North Carolina-Greensboro in January 2007. It had been even longer since the Wolfpack reached 90 in an ACC game. N.C. State last did that at Clemson under Herb Sendek a year earlier, then didnít score 90 again for 73 straight regular-season ACC games before Saturday.
ěTodayís game proved a lot,î Smith said. ěI think it opened a lot of eyes. It think our guys did great.î
As for the Deacons, it was a rough league debut for first-year coach Jeff Bzdelik.
Trailing 40-30 at halftime, Wake Forest scored the first six points after the break in what amounted to its last gasp. The Wolfpack answered with nine straight points and never looked back.
Afterward, reporters near the Wake Forest locker room could hear Bzdelikís angry voice carrying through the hall during an extended postgame talk with his team. Once he emerged, he was blunt about his teamís performance after being outrebounded 47-22 and giving up 20 offensive boards that led to 25 second-chance points.
ěItíd be easy to say weíre not strong enough yet,î Bzdelik said. ěBut you donít need to be big to rebound the basketball. You need to get down low, you need to drive your forearm right into peopleís sternum and you need to drive them back. … I tell you what, thereís no reason whatsoever a team should outrebound you by 25. Plain and simple.
ěI told them we can do all the scouting reports and go through everything that we know theyíre going to do, and when the ballís thrown up on the glass, you have to be a man. This is a big boysí league.î
Smith looked sharp in his third game back after missing 10 straight following knee surgery, making 10 of 16 shots and grabbing 11 rebounds to lead an attack that had four players in double figures.
Williams matched his career-high with 16 points to go with seven rebounds, while Wood added 11 points and hit all three of his 3-point tries.