Wolfpack rip Deacons apart

Feisty N.C. State blew what progress Wake Forest has made this season to smithereens Saturday in a 76-40 bloodletting in front of 11,101 at Joel Coliseum.

Jamming the fragile Deacons out of their offense and eventually right off their own court, the Wolfpack rebounded from Wednesday's home loss to Georgia Tech with one of their most lopsided victories in ACC history.

Wake Forest shot 25 percent from the floor in the first half and 29 percent for the game, scored a total of 16 field goals and got next to nothing from its two leading scorers, C.J. Harris and Travis McKie.

A miserable day got worse for the Deacons with 11:37 remaining when McKie was ejected for elbowing Scott Wood in the mouth.

N.C. State improved to 13-5 and 2-1 in ACC play. Wake Forest fell to 10-7 and 1-2.

"It just kept getting away from us and away from us and away from us," coach Jeff Bzdelik of Wake Forest said.

The Wolfpack — led by Lorenzo Brown's 20 points, six assists and four steals; C.J. Williams' 15 points and five rebounds; and Richard Howell's 12 points and 12 rebounds — made a headlong run at their most decisive win in conference play.

They came up short of the 40-point thumping dealt to Clemson in 1954 in the first season of the ACC. The Deacons, meanwhile, needed baskets in the last 2:09 from Anthony Fields, Chase Fischer and Daniel Green to avoid their lowest output ever in an ACC game.

Wake Forest scored 34 against North Carolina in 1959 and 39 last season against Georgia Tech.

"I don't know why we did what we did offensively today," Bzdelik said. "I don't know what to say. I don't know what to say. I really don't.

"You can ask them."

The answer from the players was that the Wolfpack, on this day, were too determined, too physical and too well-schooled on the Deacons' open-post motion offense. The Deacons scored on nine of 34 first-half possessions and trailed 33-17 by halftime. They followed that with points on just four of their first 20 possessions of the second half and were down 63-25 with 81/2 minutes remaining.

"They were all jamming us at the free-throw line when we were trying to pop out and keep moving the offense," Fischer said. "A little bit, we let them jam us. They're a strong team, but we didn't cut hard."

The coaches on the N.C. State bench were telling their players where the Deacons were headed before they got there. Harris, guarded most of the day by Williams, made three field goals on 12 attempts and scored 10 points — almost eight fewer than his average. McKie, coming off a 25-point performance at Maryland, made one of five field-goal attempts to score two points, 16 fewer than his average.

"I think our staff normally does a good job with their scouting," coach Mark Gottfried of State said. "I don't know, but it seemed to me today that we really had them pegged."

The Deacons had played seven minutes without a field goal when McKie drove into the lane. As Brown stripped the ball, McKie's arms came up, and he drove his right elbow into Wood's mouth.

Officials Karl Hess and Bryan Kersey reviewed a courtside monitor and assessed a Flagrant 2 technical foul, which calls for an ejection. Because no fisticuffs were involved, McKie will be eligible for Wake Forest's next game, at Duke on Thursday.

McKie said he didn't recall elbowing Wood.

"Not at all," McKie said. "I thought they called a charge, and he just fell, and it was over with. I saw he got hit in the mouth, and I told him, 'Are you all right?' And he said, 'yeah.'

"They said I elbowed him in the mouth, and I had to get thrown out. So I had to respect it."

According to McKie and Bzdelik, Wood told them he didn't think the foul was intentional. Wood was not available for comment after the game.

"When people look up to you to lead this team and carry the load of this team, and you don't do it and on top of that you get ejected, it's so sad," McKie said. "So this is probably the worst game of my college career.

"This is a bad loss for us, but I think this is a turning point for me individually. I think I need to do a lot more things off the court and on the court to help myself and my team get better. So I have to change."

Note: C.J. Leslie, a 6-foot-8 sophomore who leads N.C. State with 13.7 points a game, did not start for the fifth time this season because of what Gottfried called a disciplinary issue. Leslie played 17 minutes without scoring before injuring his ankle in the second half.

"He did roll his ankle there in the second half, and we'll get a lot of treatment for him in the next day or two,'' Gottfried said.

"Hopefully that's not going to be an issue."