The Wolfpack earned its first ACC victory of the season Saturday afternoon in Winston Salem by dominating Wake Forest 88-74. A very good first half saw the Wolfpack get a 50-32 lead with contributions from everybody that started. We even got some minutes for Nieman, Davis, and Ferguson off the bench to help with a little foul trouble. The second half was more of a control half but we held the lead from anywhere between 12 and 21. There was never a time in the second half that I was worried about losing the game, which was a nice feeling! The final margin was 14 and we move to 11-6 overall and 1-3 in the ACC.

Every player that started the game for the Wolfpack scored in double figures. Grant lead the way with 24 followed by a career high by Fells of 20. Costner and McCauley were both in foul trouble but ended up with 17 and 13 respectively. Horner had a nice game with 12 points and Nieman added 2. It was a very nice shooting game for the Wolfpack going 34-56 from the field for 61% and 9-20 for 45% from the three point line. We were getting good shots the entire game and knocking them down. Wake shot 54% from the field but had 22 turnovers leading to 19 Wolfpack points. I also thought that State did a good job of mixing up the defenses. We played some man to man, some 2-3 zone, and some 1-3-1. It really keep Wake off balance and lead to some of their turnovers.

Once again Engin Atsur did not play because of the hamstring injury. He was dressed out on the bench, but never even thought about coming into the game. It has been a very tough year for our senior point guard but hopefully things are about to change. We get this week off and are back in action next Saturday at home verse Duke.

Coach Sidney Lowe gets his first ACC victory as the head coach of the Wolfpack. Hopefully there will be many more this season and in the seasons to come. Good work today Coach Lowe and the Wolfpack! Lets enjoy the week off and get ready for the Blue Devils on Saturday.

This entry was posted on Saturday, January 13th, 2007 at 2:29 pm and is filed under General, Basketball. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.