Pack holds on against Deacons

Wobbly N.C. State remained upright long enough to upend flat-footed Wake Forest 82-76 last night in front of 16,848 at the RBC Center.

The Wolfpack built a second-half lead of 20 points and needed all of them to fend off a Deacons rally that cut the lead to two with a minute to play.

James Johnson of Wake Forest missed a 3-point attempt that would have tied the game with 20 seconds remaining, and Javier Gonzalez and Brendan Costner hit three of four free throws to seal the victory.

N.C. State students stormed the court to celebrate the upset over the seventh-ranked Deacons, who slipped to 18-4 and 5-4 in ACC play with their fourth loss in the past six games. The Wolfpack, coming off a loss to Virginia Tech in which it squandered an 18-point lead, improved to 13-9 and 3-6.

"A win cures everything," Coach Sidney Lowe of N.C. State said. "It was a great win for our guys."

Coach Dino Gaudio said he was pleased with the Deacons' heart and the way they roared back into contention, but he said he had to wonder about their heads. Wake Forest committed sloppy turnovers, failed to box out under the defensive backboards and sent the Wolfpack to the free-throw line for 31 free throws, of which it made 23.

"I'm incredibly disappointed with the loss, in that we gave the ball to them 34 times that they maybe otherwise shouldn't have had it," Gaudio said. "What I mean by that is they had 17 second shots and we had 17 turnovers. That's the difference in the game, 34 extra possessions where we don't box out and we turn it over.

"You can't give anybody 34 extra opportunities -- and we still had a chance to win at the end."

Costner scored 23 points and pulled down nine rebounds, and teammate Farnold Degand bounced back from an academics-related, one-game suspension to contribute 14 points, four assists and three steals.

But perhaps nobody lent a bigger hand to the victory than sophomore Tracy Smith, who had 12 points and 12 rebounds (10 of them offensive) in 24 minutes.

Johnson led the Deacons with 18 points and nine rebounds, but Jeff Teague, the ACC's second-leading scorer with 20.9 points a game, managed only 11 points to go with seven assists and three turnovers. N.C. State deployed a box-and-one with 6-6 senior Courtney Fells guarding Teague while his teammates played a 2-2 zone.

"He's a great player," Johnson said. "I would box-and-one him, too, if I were a coach."

Teague took a career-low three shots from the floor, one on the first half and two in the second.

"I wasn't really trying to make plays," Teague said. "I think I was being more lackadaisical. I should have tried to drive more.

"In the first half I was driving more and getting fouled. In the second half I was like, ‘If there's one guy guarding me and the other four guys are really good with the basketball, then we should be able to score easily.'

"We struggled because I think in our offense we get a good flow when everybody is touching the ball and everybody is moving. But when they're running a box-and-one we were just standing around, that's not good for our offense at all."

Gaudio wasn't as bothered by Teague's lack of production as he was the repeated occasions that Wolfpack players out-hustled the Deacons to the ball. One such play that stuck in his craw was when Smith missed two free throws, but rebounded the second for a follow shot that extended the lead to 73-58 with 6:23 to play.

"We didn't box the shooter one time and they scored on that possession," Gaudio said. "Box the shooter. You learn that in the third grade."

Nor did Gaudio find fault with the number of free throws that N.C. State attempted.

"They probably should have shot 31," Gaudio said. "I think they deserved to shoot 31 free throws."

The Wolfpack extended a 42-34 halftime lead to 62-42 on Costner's 3-pointer from the left corner with 14 minutes remaining. Freshman Al-Farouq Aminu fouled out two minutes later with Wake Forest trailing 62-45, and still the Deacons staged a rally that almost pulled out the victory.

Wake Forest's press forced three straight turnovers to set the rally in motion and the Deacons outscored the Wolfpack 31-14 to pull as close as two.

"It felt like they kind of thought they had won it already, so they stopped playing as hard as they could," Johnson said. "But they maintained, kept their poise and they won at home."

After Johnson's 3-pointer sliced the lead to 78-76 with a minute to go, Ben McCauley drew a foul from Chas McFarland and hit one of two free throws. Wake Forest attacked the basket and Johnson fired a 3-point attempt from the top of the key that caught iron and bounced high into the air.

"It felt good, but I kind of pulled out of it a little," Johnson said "I shot it and backed up. I stood have stayed with my jumper a little more."

Reserve Gary Clark, who provided seven points off the bench, got his nose bloodied during the tussle for the ball, but Gonzalez came away with the prize. After Gonzalez hit both free throws for an 81-76 lead, Ish Smith missed a 3-pointer from the right wing.

Fueling the Deacons' rally was the sense that Wolfpack was on the verge of another collapse.

"I could sense it," senior Harvey Hale said. "Coach was telling us ‘Just keep fighting, just keep fighting.' But it was just too late.

"Like Coach said, you've got to play hard for 40 minutes instead of playing hard for eight."

■ Dan Collins can be reached at 727-7323 or at dcollins@wsjournal.com.

WFU Min FG-A FT-A OR-T A PF PT

Teague 36 2-3 6-8 0-1 7 1 11

Aminu 21 4-7 0-0 2-6 1 5 9

McFarland 19 3-5 0-0 1-5 0 5 6

Johnson 35 8-15 1-1 3-9 3 3 18

Williams 27 4-10 0-2 0-1 0 3 8

Clark 6 3-6 0-0 1-1 0 3 7

Hale 12 2-4 0-0 0-1 0 1 5

Smith 21 2-6 1-2 1-2 2 0 5

Weaver 6 1-1 0-0 1-3 0 2 2

Woods 17 2-5 1-3 2-4 0 1 5

Totals 200 31-62 9-16 13-35 13 24 76

Percentages: FG .500, FT .563. 3-Point Goals: 5-18, .278 (Aminu 1-1, Teague 1-2, Hale 1-3, Clark 1-3, Johnson 1-5, Smith 0-1, Williams 0-3). Team Rebounds: 2. Blocked Shots: 6 (McFarland 2, Johnson 2, Woods, Hale). Turnovers: 17 (Aminu 4, McFarland 4, Teague 3, Smith 2, Johnson, Woods, Weaver, Williams). Steals: 10 (Aminu 3, Teague 2, Smith, Clark, McFarland, Hale, Williams).

N.C. STATE Min FG-A FT-A OR-T A PF PT

Fells 36 4-12 2-2 0-0 2 0 12

Gonzalez 19 1-4 4-4 1-4 2 1 6

TSmith 24 5-13 2-5 10-12 1 4 12

Costner 35 8-13 5-6 2-9 2 3 23

McCauley 29 1-4 3-4 2-5 2 1 5

Degand 26 4-10 3-6 0-1 4 3 14

Williams 18 3-4 4-4 0-3 1 2 10

Thomas 4 0-1 0-0 1-1 0 1 0

Horner 9 0-0 0-0 0-1 0 0 0

Totals 200 26-61 23-31 17-39 14 15 82

Percentages: FG .426, FT .742. 3-Point Goals: 7-18, .389 (Degand 3-5, Costner 2-3, Fells 2-7, Gonzalez 0-3). Team Rebounds: 3. Blocked Shots: 6 (McCauley 2, Costner 2, Degand, Fells). Turnovers: 16 (Costner 4, Gonzalez 4, Degand 2, Horner 2, T.Smith, Fells, Williams, McCauley). Steals: 12 (Degand 3, Fells 3, Gonzalez 2, Costner 2, Williams, T.Smith).

Wake Forest 34 42 -- 76


N.C. State 42 40 -- 82

A--16,848